To be honest, I've never looked at Rizzuto's induction. I will take a look and see what I think.
You summarized it well.
Even I enjoyed listening to Phil Rizzuto on Yankees broadcasts in my youth, but the critics of his Hall of Fame induction mention the following (not my original research or thought):
Offense: Rizzuto was just another guy in the lineup
- he got
fewer hits than any Hall of Fame shortstop in the live-ball era
- among "modern" Hall of Fame shortstops (since the 1940s), Rizzuto is the only one who
didn't rack up either 150 HRs
or 150 stolen bases
- of the 19 everyday shortstops during the '40s & '50s (Rizzuto's generation), he ranked 8th in that group in batting average, 7th in OBP, and 13th in slugging
- according to the
Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, a lineup of Phil Rizzutos, playing with an average pitching staff, would have compiled a winning percentage of only .494
- ranking all the shortstops of the '40s & '50s re how many runs they created compared to the average shortstop, Rizzuto finishes in 14th place
Defense: everybody agrees Rizzuto was very good but he never was the brand name for SS excellence
- Marty Marion was regarded as the greatest defensive shortstop of Rizzuto's era
- I don't even trust advanced defensive metrics today ... let alone trying to apply them to performances from 60-70 years ago ... but looking simply at assists, of the nineteen 500-assist seasons by shortstops in the '40s & '50s, none were turned in by Rizzuto (whose career high was 458)
So maybe Rizzuto was a greater force than the sum of his numbers?- Bill James points out that when Rizzuto retired, many articles were written summarizing his fine career... but
none of them (as far as he knows) ever suggested that he might be a Hall of Famer
- indeed, during Rizzuto's 15 years on the baseball writers ballot, he never came
remotely close to being elected to the Hall of Fame
- so if Rizzuto was even a borderline Hall of Famer, the writers who covered him
never saw it
- finally, it took Rizzuto another 13 years on the Veterans Committee ballot until he finally picked up enough votes to collect his plaque
after relentless lobbying by his pals all over the game