It was a close race between two players who had just joined the holdover list, Luke Appling and Bill Dickey. In the end it was Dickey who prevailed by a single vote, winning induction as the 81st member of the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Bill and the voting after the jump

Most Career Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, baseball-reference version) in AL History By a Player Known as “Bill” or “Billy”
1. Bill Dickey 55.8
2. Billy Pierce 48.7
3. Bill Freehan 44.7
4. Bill Donovan 36.5
5. Bill Bradley 35.1

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76 men have caught at least 750 career games for American League teams. The highest AL career slugging percentages among those seventy-six guys (AL career OPS+ is in parens):
1. Bill Dickey .486 (127)
2. Yogi Berra .483 (125)
3. Mickey Cochrane .478 (129)
4. Victor Martinez .475 (126)
5. Ivan Rodriguez .474 (109)

And among that same group, the most AL career Rbat (aka, WAR Runs Batting):
1. Mickey Cochrane 271.3
2. Bill Dickey 261.8
3. Yogi Berra 229.1
4. Joe Mauer 221.0
5. Jorge Posada 204.5

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Most career Rbat among all catchers (behind the plate in 50% or more of career games played) who had a positive career Rfield (aka, WAR Runs Fielding):
1. Johnny Bench 269.3
2. Bill Dickey 261.8
3. Gabby Hartnett 232.1
4. Yogi Berra 228.2
5. Carlton Fisk 167.8

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Most Career WAR by Left-Handed Hitting Catchers (behind the plate in 50% or more of career games played)
1. Yogi Berra 59.3
2. Bill Dickey 55.8
3. Mickey Cochrane 52.1
4. Joe Mauer 46.3
5. Darrell Porter 40.7

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Most Career Triples in Games Played as Catcher (Regular Season and Post-Season), 1914-2014:
1. Bill Dickey 73
T2. Wally Schang and Rollie Hemsley 72
4. Ivey Wingo 65
4. Mickey Cochrane 64

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–Despite the lowest turnout for a regular COG ballot in over a year, and a rather large list of holdovers, Dickey, Appling, Roberto Alomar and Harmon Killebrew all received rather high levels of support. The latter three all earned an extra round of guaranteed eligibility. Alomar earned his extra eligibility round with a late wave of support.

–Also benefiting from some late support was Minnie Minoso. Minoso’s spot on the ballot was saved with a couple of last-hour votes. all the other holdovers also avoided falling below the decisive 10% support level.

–Every vote on every ballot that was cast this round went to a holdover — not a single vote was cast for anyone who was eligible for the first time this round.

–David Cone’s only previous appearance on a regular induction ballot was way, way back in the early days of the COG voting, back in the 1963 birth-year round. Cone appeared on just one ballot back then. This round, however, fresh off his success in last week’s redemption vote, David appeared on seven ballots, enough to earn a return engagement.

–Graig Nettles (with the support of some vocal campaigning from commenter Joseph), Richie Ashburn and Don Drysdale won enough redemption round support to return to the next regular ballot. Ashburn and Drysdale tied for the second-most votes recieved in this latest redemption round, so we’ll throw all three guys into the huge ballot mix in the next round.

–Adding Nettles, Ashburn and Drysdale to the holdover list, and with all the previous holdovers other than Dickey returning, there will be a very large total of 18 holdovers in the upcoming 1970 birth-year round. A similarly daunting nine of those 18 will be “on the bubble”, subject to being dropped from the ballot if they appear on fewer than 10% of ballots in the upcoming round. 12 13 of the 18 holdovers have returned to the ballot via the redemption route at some point. Only Killebrew, Minoso, Campanella, Dean, Ferrell and Appling among the holdovers have never fallen off the ballot. It will be interesting to see if that remains true for those six five with the packed competition coming up.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1907 Part 2 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive w ith details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.

Another COG data spreadsheet showing each season a COG member played in the majors, along with the team he played for that season and his baseball-reference WAR (overall WAR for everyday players, pitching WAR for pitchers) for the season, is here:
Circle of Greats Seasons