Key piece of the Big Red Machine continues to be ignored by baseball HOF

Baseball has had a trio of some talented players at the same time who had big success such as:

The Nasty Boys — Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen of Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers

The Big Three (not to be confused with the Boston Celtics Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish) — Atlanta Braves pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.

The Bash Brothers — Oakland A’s Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Matt Stairs/Jason Giambi

But here’s an interesting trio linked not as teammates but great shortstops.

The trio consists of the Cincinnati Reds’ Dave Concepcion, Oakland A’s Bert Campaneris, and St. Louis Cardinals’ Ozzie Smith.

Despite a lot of impressive statistics, only Smith — a.k.a. The Wizard of Oz — has been enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

The numbers don’t add up. Well, actually they do add up.

All three shortstops played 19 seasons with Concepcion and Smith playing for only one team.

• Dave Concepcion batted .267 with 101 home runs, 950 runs batted in, 2,326 hits, 321 stolen bases, 5 Gold Gloves, 9 All-Star Game selections including the MVP in 1974, 2 Silver Slugger Awards, and 2 World Series championships.

• Bert Campaneris batted .259, 79 home runs, 646 RBI, 2,249 hits, 649 stolen bases, 6 Golden Gloves, 6 All-Star Game selections, 3 World Series championships.

• Ozzie Smith batted. 262, 28 home runs (yes, 28), 793 RBI, 2,460 hits, 15 All-Star Games, 13 Gold Gloves, NLCS Most Valuable Player, Silver Slugger Award, and played in one World Series.

Now, Ozzie could do a backflip after he had made a good play that excited the crowd and made style points with the media.

But the 5-11, 150-pounder didn’t do it while he was making a play. Heck, my friend Paul McDaniels played tight end at West Virginia State and at 6-3, 225 pounds he could do a backflip thanks to safety John Stone teaching him how to do it.

This year the Baseball Writers of America Association voted in center fielders Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran. Second baseman Jeff Kent was selected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, formerly known as the Veterans Committee.

No one is arguing that Ozzie Smith doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame, but Concepcion and Campaneris shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s time for the committee to do its homework and reward these two outstanding players for their accomplishments.

I was fortunate to see Concepcion play his entire career as were all other Reds’ fans. Concepcion was amazing with his range and how he could just glide to the ball and turn a tough play into something that looks nonchalant.

His ability to get to balls other shortstops weren’t able to reach were probably the balls that went for an error. He made it look so easy and effortless that it didn’t leave a lasting impression on the writers.

Guess I should have had my friend Paul teach Concepcion how to do a backflip.