Results of Special Negro Leagues and Pre-Negro Leagues Elections
Seventeen people. Effa Manley becomes the first woman in the Hall of Fame. Now, I’m passingly familiar with segregated baseball, and these people generally do belong — there are lots of less qualified people in the Hall. They did a good job.
But seventeen at once? It seems like they’d have to get short shrift. They would have been better served if the committee had limited itself to 2-4 a year for several years.
Interesting because all the inductees, from what I’ve read, are deceased.
Minnie Minoso & Buck O’Neal are alive, but they didn’t get voted in.
Actually, it’s O’Neil, not O’Neal (insert Irish joke).
I don’t agree because if they deserve the honor then haven’t they waited enough already for the recognition. Go rent “The Soul of the Game” the film made by HBO and you might feel as outraged as I am to this day for what baseball did to black people.
MR,
Also, in Ken Burns’ doc, the issue of race is its central theme, a theme that is conveniently sidestepped when discussing much of American history, not just sports.
FYI – Effa Manley held Anti-Lynching Day at the ballpark. When I was young & going to Atlanta Stadium, we got ostrich races. The stakes were certainly a little different…
I know this is probably tasteless of me, but I really want Dotti Hinson in the Hall of Fame. She may not have had a ton of seasons, but she captivated America during World War II, refused to compromise her principles, and Geena Davis looked really foxy in that Rockford Peaches uniform.
Hear my case, Veterans Committee!
Michael, my point is that by inducting seventeen people at once none of them will hold anyone’s attention for more than a few minutes. If you do two or three at a time, each can get their moment in the sun. As it is, they’re all just going to be part of a roll call, they’ll get one paragraph in the paper come induction day, and their descendants will get to give a one or two minute speech before they’re played off the stage like Best Documentary Short Feature winners.
Or maybe they’ll do it like the Technical Awards instead. Jackie Autry can come out after the Frick Award winner speaks and talk about the luncheon they had to induct all seventeen of them and they’ll show a few short snippets of it and roll their names over it.
“If you do two or three at a time, each can get their moment in the sun.”
Do you really want to give them a moment in the sun, though? It doesn’t take long for a decades-old corpse to begin to stink.
Joey, I love your humor!
I have read a couple of books on the Negro Leagues, but am far from an expert on the subject. I think a couple of the inductees were clearly correcting a decades old wrong – Suttles, Torriente, Santop. Others voted in are, in my opinion, far more deserving than the bottom 10-20% of the Hall of Fame. But I would like to know more about why Ray Brown and why not Cannonball Dick Redding or why Jud Wilson and why not Ollie Marcell … dozens of other Negro League and pre Negro League stars denied the opportunity to play major league ball could be added without diminishing the overall quality of the entity one iota.
I am, however, glad that Minnie Minoso wasn’t selected. I think he could (should?) be chosen by the Veterans Committee. But his career was virtually entirely in the majors and he spent little time in the Negro Leagues or playing in Cuba. As revealed in his autobiography, he was only 21 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. (Baseball-reference still uses the older birthday that Minoso says is incorrect.) Obviously race had a lot to do with how slowly he broke in, but I don’t think his HoF qualifications are really changed by adding his limited Negro League play and considering him with the other inductees.
Keith Olbermann was outraged that O’Neil and Minoso didn’t get in. I think he is right about O’Neil but I agree with bamadan that Minoso shouldn’t go in solely based on his Negro League credentials.
If you think about what MLB would have been like in the 30s and 40s without the color barrier–aside from the individual injustices done to these players–it almost breaks your heart at the waste.
Trade of the day!
My barber (who know his conections) just told me that the Braves, Reds, and Texas are going for a three way
ATL-gets Adam Dunn and Todd Coffey
Texas gets- Chuck James and Brian Pena
Cin- gets LaRoche, RA Dickey, and Thomson
Hungry? Grab a snickers. Bored? Learn your Hobbit name at the office Hobbit name generator website. http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/
I don’t have to tell you, by the way, that a certain Iris Peatfingers of Brockenborings is quite a hot little Hobbit fox. (some of you know who I am talking about here). You think she’s into fat hairy stumpy feet?? I’m not a Hobbit mind you, I just have bad feet. 🙁
If any sort of award is ever handed out on this site–and I really don’t care what the category is–I nominate jac holtzman for it.
Stu, I second that emotion.
Smitty, I wouldn’t mind the Braves getting Adam Dunn, but are you sure your barber knows it’s 2006? Jim Bowden might make a Dunn-and-Coffey for LaRoche, Dickey, and Thomson deal, but I’m not sure Wayne Krimsky will.
Then again, that’s such a laughably snakebit franchise, I guess it’s hard to be surprised by anything.
I just double checked jac’s site — Iris Peatfingers is who you think she is. Outstanding.
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Anyone see the Nats signed Pedro Astacio? What are the odds they make him take an MRI?
Ok, I just turned on my TV and it happened to be on ‘Cold Pizza’ (which I happen to think is the worst show in the history of ESPN) and Jay Crawford was interviewing Anna Benson. If I hadn’t actually seen who was talking and merely heard the voice, I would have guessed that he was interviewing either (a) some mid-fifties white trash trailer park inhabitant who smokes about 3 packs a day or (b) a female pro wrestler who sprinkles ‘roids on her cheerios. I mean seriously, her voice was kinda creepy. Did I miss something earlier in the interview? Is it possible that she had a sore throat or something? Also, they showed her FHM cover, and I probably wouldn’t have even known it was the same person. Not that I am surprised, but she was REALLY unimpressive on television where they can’t airbrush/enhance her.
She also said that she and Kris grew up in Atlanta and that Leo Mazzone had been their idol their whole lives. Hmmmmm…
I love the fact that Bowden was going to pay Brian Lawrence $3.5 mill and wouldn’t pay for a $10,000 MRI. I really, really hope that Frank Robinson’s head explodes on national television–I so totally don’t want to miss that moment.
Over at the Baseball Analysts, Bryan Smith has an article about the Top 20 second-year players for 2006, using percieved career value. McCann is fourth, behind Felix Hernandez, Rickie Weeks, and Ryan Howard. Francoeur is ninth. He compares McCann to Joe Torre and says that Francoeur is the biggest variable on the list. Interesting article. Felix Hernandez sounds like someone who would be really fun to watch and much less fun to hit against.
Felix Hernandez sounds like someone who would be really fun to watch and much less fun to hit against.
Speaking as a proud fantasy baseball owner and also just as a baseball fan who watched all of his starts, I wholeheartedly agree. He’s got the goods.
Any media outlet that allows Anna Benson any time is desperate for ratings. “Cold Pizza” fits that description.
On a related note, I’m afraid ESPN-The Brand has become unbearable.
Hudson to start opening day over Smoltz. Not that it’s such a big deal. Let’s just hope both guys are healthy…
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2348041
I don’t visit ESPN.com as much as I used too. Almost all of the worthwhile baseball stuff is only “insider” now. I still like ESPN radio though.
Kyle, as a baseball fan, I’m both proud of you and afraid for you. King Felix is most definitely the goods–but he’s also a Seattle Mariners pitching prospect, which just SCREAMS injury alert. Plus, any time a guy is mentioned in the same breath as “1984 Doc Gooden,” you have to fear for the health of his arm.
And his septum.