| twinsfan 
 
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   | “There’s never too long a time to wait if you finally make the leap,” Simmons said. “Today I did.” 
 He did it, he acknowledged, with the help of the analytics community. While the switch-hitting Simmons had strong attributes in the traditional sense -- 2,472 career hits, 483 doubles, 248 homers, 1,389 RBIs, eight All-Star selections over 21 seasons with the Cardinals, Brewers and Braves, and a World Series appearance with Milwaukee in 1982 – the deeper appreciation only arrived as stats like on-base percentage and Wins Above Replacement became a part of the regular parlance.
 
 Simmons’ 50.3 career WAR (per Baseball Reference) makes him one of just nine catchers with 50 or more. The other eight -- Johnny Bench, Gary Carter, Iván Rodriguez, Carlton Fisk, Gabby Hartnett, Yogi Berra, Mike Piazza and Bill Dickey -- are all already in the Hall. Simmons, meanwhile, lasted just one year on the BBWAA ballot after netting 3.7% of the vote in 1994.
 
 “If it weren’t for the analytics people, my career as a potential Hall of Famer probably would have been shut down and forgotten a long time ago,” Simmons said. “When they started talking about on-base percentage and WAR and how WAR was comprised, it became a real study and then the real comparisons started to develop.”
 
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