He is an easy hall of famer and was a great defensive catcher from all I read. Baseball Reference must now have all the stats as they don’t capture it. I always read that Mackey wasn’t a great hitter, but it looks like he was really great early in his career. He had fair homerun power and great doubles power. His batting average was great. He was basically a great hitter at that time. This was through 1929 and Mackey was 31 years old.
However, the next three years of his career are missing. When he came back he was a below average hitter. He only played one game in 1933 then was below average in the hitting department that season and after. Of course, he was 35 that season. He caught until he was 49 years old.
I read a lot about how great Mackey was as a catcher. They said no one could compare to him. However, I seen a lot of great catchers and I wonder how much greater could this guy have been over the others. Biz Mackey was given credit for training Roy Campanella, another great defensive catcher. However, Bill Dickey trained Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. I can see this being a help for a hall of fame argument if they are borderline players. However, I think both Dickey and Mackey are comfortably in the hall of fame without their coaching record. I would Mackey close behind Yadier Molina my 14th best catcher and 118th greatest player. That means he was quite the player.
