I grew up in Pittsburgh and as a teenager watched many of Bill Mazeroski's games. He and Roberto Clemente were my heroes. Maz to my knowledge was never thrown out of a game by an umpire. He was know as a quite hard-working player. He was never taken out of a double play by a base runner and won many games with his fielding. He also was a clutch hitter who usually batted eighth and would not see many good pitches to hit with the pitcher coming up next. But he was regarded as also the best hitting eighth hitter in the league.

It was rare to see Maz make an error.

When I moved to the New York area in the 1960s I was amazed to see how the baseball fans in this area knew so little of him. Had he played in New York or Chicago with the Cubs he would have made it to the Hall Of Fame sooner. In Chicago he would have had a higher average and hit many more home runs since he hit most of them on the road.

Maz deserves his place in baseball's Hall of Fame.

» Gerald Gregor is an accountant, 50-year baseball fan, and a two-time national statistical baseball champion. His son played Division I baseball.