In case you haven't heard, there may be 10 to 20 new members announced today... including the first woman. (Debate over Buck O'Neil's qualifications -- a merely good player benefits from the Ken Burns Effect? -- has been raging for a week on the SABR list.)
A Special Election for Rediscovered Players
By MURRAY CHASS
The population of the Hall of Fame is about to grow in a historic way. With an announcement tomorrow, the Hall may gain 10 to 20 members. In the Hall's 70-year history, the largest induction class in any year was the 11 the veterans committee elected in 1946.
At a meeting today in Tampa, Fla., a committee of 12 scholars and historians will vote on a list of 39 Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues players, managers, executives and owners to determine if any merit inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
As with other Hall elections, a candidate will need 75 percent of the votes to be elected, and no one knows how many of the 39 candidates will receive at least nine votes. But the feeling among people who are familiar with the list is that 10 to 20 could be elected.
Most intriguing among that number is Effa Manley, who would be the first woman elected to the Hall. Co-owner with her husband of the Newark Eagles, Manley operated the team on a daily basis from 1936 to 1947. Cum Posey, the principal owner of the legendary Homestead Grays, once said that the league as a whole could learn from Manley.
Posey is also a strong candidate for election, as are catcher Biz Mackey, pitcher John Donaldson, first baseman-outfielder Mule Suttles and J. L. Wilkinson, the white longtime owner of the Kansas City Monarchs.
Others given a good chance of election are pitchers Ray Brown, Chet Brewer and José Méndez; Sol White, infielder, manager, owner (and writer); Dick Redding, pitcher, outfielder and manager; shortstop Dick Lundy; and Alex Pompez, executive and owner.
Minnie Minoso, an outfielder who also played in the major leagues, and Buck O'Neil, a first baseman who later coached in the majors, are the only living candidates on the list. If one or both are elected, they would represent the new group of Hall of Famers at the induction ceremony July 30 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"This is an effort that is 30 years too late," said Fay Vincent, the former baseball commissioner and nonvoting chairman of the committee. "This should have been done when a lot of them were alive."
Vincent credited Joe Garagiola Sr. with the genesis of the idea: a Cooperstown weekend in 1991 when 75 Negro leaguers were welcomed to the Hall and given special medals.
"Until then," said Vincent, who as commissioner aided living Negro leaguers, "there was little focus on the old Negro leagues players. It was a great weekend."
During that weekend, Vincent apologized for baseball's exclusion of black players. No one had ever apologized to them.
Eighteen players among the 26 in the Hall of Fame gained entry on their Negro leagues credentials, 10 elected by a special committee and 8 by the veterans committee. The group includes Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Monte Irvin and Buck Leonard.
About five years ago, Vincent said, the Hall initiated a study to find out more about old black players who were not enshrined, wanting to learn if others should be. Vincent saluted Bud Selig, the current commissioner, for giving $250,000 of baseball's money to finance a statistical study
But, Vincent said, "The statistical data was very meager." So the Hall established a committee of experts to determine whether any players had been overlooked. Unlike the writers' annual vote, the committee members will not be limited to 10 players.
Frank Robinson, manager of the Washington Nationals and a Hall of Famer, will speak to the committee today on standards for election. He didn't have much to say the other day about his appearance and the committee's job.
"I think it's a good thing," he said. But he said he had no idea how many candidates might be elected, would not speculate about which ones would be elected and wouldn't say how he thought the Hall of Famers would feel about the election of a large number of old players.
"I'd rather not get into that before the vote," Robinson said. "I don't think that would be fair to the voters."
Vincent avoided predictions, too, but he related a story about one of the players he believes would be elected: Donaldson, an early 20th century left-handed pitcher, who had a career record of 262-94 for a .736 winning percentage.
According to Vincent, John McGraw once said of Donaldson, "If I could dunk him in calamine lotion, I'd sign him."
Vincent did not hear McGraw make that comment, but he did have a conversation about Donaldson with Elden Auker, a former major league pitcher now 95 years old.
"I played against Donaldson in 1929," Vincent quoted Auker as saying. "I was in college and we played at an Arapaho Indian reservation in Kansas. I pitched against Paige and I won, 2-1. Donaldson played center field."
Before their games, Auker said, the Monarchs enjoyed showing off their skills. "Donaldson got out in center field and squatted like a catcher," Auker related. "The Monarchs had a catcher named Young, and he squatted behind home plate and they played catch from 300 feet. They threw the ball on a line. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it."
That baseball is aware of Donaldson and all black players from the Negro leagues era and earlier is largely the result of Robert W. Peterson's seminal work "Only the Ball Was White," the book that put a spotlight on the forgotten black players. Peterson was a member of the committee but was dying of lung cancer and knew he would not be able to attend the Tampa meeting.
Jeff Idelson, a Hall official, said Peterson mailed his ballot. The envelope was postmarked Feb. 10, Peterson died the next day. The envelope arrived at the Hall on Feb. 13.
"When we tally the votes at the end of the meeting, we'll open his ballot and include it," Idelson said.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:15 (eighteen years ago) link
Well let me flex one way and then the other on this:
Current members of the BBHoF who were Negro Leaguers.
# Satchel Paige, pitcher
# Josh Gibson, catcher
# Buck Leonard, first baseman
# Martin Dihigo, second baseman
# Judy Johnson, third baseman
# Pop Lloyd, shortstop
# Cool Papa Bell, leftfield
# Oscar Charleston, centerfield
# Monte Irvin, rightfield
White HoFers Elected betwen 1935 (start of the HoF) and 1945 (The yeah Jackie Robinson broke in and the effective end of the HoF-caliber NL player). There are executives in this list, that I didn't bother to delete.
Ty Cobb
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Morgan Bulkeley
Ban Johnson
Nap Lajoie
Connie Mack
John McGraw
Tris Speaker
George Wright
Cy Young
Pete Alexander
Alexander Cartwright
Henry Chadwick
Cap Anson
Eddie Collins
Charlie Comiskey
Candy Cummings
Buck Ewing
Lou Gehrig
Willie Keeler
Charles Radbourn
George Sisler
Al Spalding
Rogers Hornsby
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Roger Bresnahan
Dan Brouthers
Fred Clarke
Jimmy Collins
Ed Delahanty
Hugh Duffy
Hughie Jennings
King Kelly
Jim O'Rourke
Wilbert Robinson
If we acccept the pretense that the BBHoF should only include the 1-2% of all MLB/NL players of a given time frame, then it seems doubtful that there would be some 20-odd NL players that would make it in when taking into account the diluted skill level wrt pitching and etc. Now, granted, this is basically the same argument that ppl will be making for sluggers of the 1990's.
So in summation, with a maximum of 20 players (the VAST majority of them from the NL)... baseball has probably capped out it's HoF-worthy NLers for all time... before they all pass on, which is admirable.
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