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Several problems with Van Haltren's HOF candidacy:
1) He put up his best years in the biggest offensive era of all time. His stats look superficially good, but lots of people hit .350 in the mid-1890s. Heck, whole teams occasionally hit .340+. If he was really good, that would show up in the gray and black-ink tests, as you guys previously mentioned.
2) He played in the 1890s, 100+ years ago. He wasn't an automatic HOFer, and he didn't supposedly do someting noteworthy (like invent the hit-and-run, as Tommy McCarthy is sometimes erroneously credited) so he got skipped when most of those guys were put in in early days of the Hall. After that it took some lobbying and luck for a player from 100 years ago to make it. Yes, there are HOFers worse than Van Haltren, but everyone knows the Hall has made many errors in the past.
With the new voting setup it's almost impossible from someone of his era to make it. Ask any current voter who George VanHaltren was and you'll probably get an answer like "wasn't he in that band, you know, like back in '74?"
3) He's probably not the most qualified player who's eligible but not in the Hall. I'd argue that Harry Stovey, Paul Hines, Bob Caruthers, Lip Pike, Deacon White, maybe a few others have as a good an argument as Van Haltren, just from his era.
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