Will Buehrle get Hall call?

It is the subjective nature of baseball history that allows one a chance to ponder the obscured moments, pushing them directly up against the most celebrated.

Presented for evidence is not a perfect game, but a perfect moment in a World Series game, an instant frozen in memory.

About 45 minutes past midnight on Oct. 26, 2005, some five hours after Game 3 began, Mark Buehrle approached Ozzie Guillen in the dugout.

Damaso Marte managed to work his way into and out of a jam in the bottom of the 13th inning, when Buehrle asked Guillen if he needed him in relief, even though Buehrle had started and thrown 7 innings just 51 hours earlier.

The Sox were out of pitchers, save a couple starters, and while you think now of the Sox' World Series sweep as easy, without a Game 3 victory it could have been much different.

A few minutes before Geoff Blum's historic home run, few noticed Buehrle walk slowly to the pen, and after Blum put the Sox in the lead, Buehrle warmed.

In the bottom of the 14th, with two on and two out in a 2-run game, Guillen replaced Marte with Buehrle, who got Adam Everett to pop to short and effectively end the Series.

It may not have been a perfect game, but it was a perfect pitch in a monumentally bigger situation. It gave the Sox an overwhelming 3-0 series lead, and Chicago was to have its first baseball champion since 1917.

That may not get Mark Buehrle to the Hall of Fame, but, honestly, neither will his pair of no-hitters, unless Buehrle pitches about another 10 years and wins another 160 games.

You knew this argument was coming after the perfecto, the question of Buehrle's place in history, but with Buehrle talking of pitching only a few more years, and with only 133 wins, 1,100 strikeouts and 8 shutouts, he's not even in the conversation, let alone the Hall of Fame picture.

Buehrle will have taken home more than $84 million through 2011 when his contract is up, and he's suggested he may retire.

By then, he won't have equaled the career work of Ken Holtzman, who threw 2 no-hitters, 31 shutouts and won 174 games.

Holtzman was also a dominant playoff performer in a dynasty, winning three straight World Series with Oakland from 1972-74.

In his four years in Oakland from 1972-75, Holtzman averaged 19 wins, 271 innings and a 2.92 ERA.

He was 4-1 in 7 career World Series starts, winning Game 1 in 1972, Games 1 and 7 in 1973, and Game 4 in 1974, during which he hit a home run off Andy Messersmith.

He threw more than 240 innings seven times and won at least 17 games six times, while Buehrle has won 17 games once. In an era in which starters aren't allowed to run up big totals, Buehrle's pitched 240 innings once.

Ken Holtzman received 4 votes for the Hall of Fame in 1985 and 5 votes in 1986. He fell 74 percent short of the necessary 75.

Tommy John piled up 288 career wins. He won 20 games three times and pitched in three World Series, but after getting 31 percent of the vote this year in his final year of ballot eligibility, John will have to hope for Veterans Committee consideration in 2010.

Bert Blyleven won 287 games, two World Series, pitched a no hitter, and struck out 3,701 batters, good for fifth all time. He's ninth in shutouts (60), 11th in games started, and 13th in innings.

Blyleven has three more chances on the ballot, and at 63 percent this year, he's walking the edge of immortality.

None of this is meant to demean Buehrle. Not at all. He's had a marvelous career by nearly all standards, but not Hall of Fame standards.

He's one of the all-time great guys to be around, one of the best-liked teammates, a true innings horse in this era of baseball, a dependable ace, and worth every penny the Sox pay him.

This is meant only to lend some perspective to a discussion that even Buehrle thinks is a bit silly.

"I think I got to do a lot more in this game to be thought of in that (Hall of Fame) category,'' Buehrle told reporters in Detroit the day after his perfect game. "I need a lot more wins and a lot more stuff in this game to be mentioned there.''

Even if he never gets there, he's in the Hall of Fame of Sox fans' hearts, giving them thrills in the last four years as grand as any in the history of the franchise.

Some bring worldwide headlines, and calls from world leaders, as did Thursday's gem.

Some were barely noticed, as was his quiet walk to the pen in the early Texas morning of an October day in which the Sox won two World Series games, and a title to boot.

Dewayne Wise's save of Buehrle's perfect game will go down as one of the greatest in team history, to be replayed for eternity, and celebrated just as long.

But for my money, in the last 200 years of combined Chicago baseball, Buehrle's save in Houston is simply as big as you'll ever witness - whether he sniffs the Hall of Fame, or not.

brozner@dailyherald.com