Bucking Popular Sentiment
As usual, no good deed goes unpunished. A committee was selected and charged with selecting a group to represent those excluded from Organized Baseball in the days before Jackie Robinson. They do a pretty damn good job of it, the Hall is opened to 17 deserving (mostly) entrants, and what is the response?
"They've insulted Buck O'Neil!"
Where do I want to start here? First of all, it is not an insult to anyone to decide that they are not quite up to the standard of the highest honor that can be given a player. It's an honor to even be considered in the first place. It's not an injustice, either. The injustice was barring O'Neil and Ray Dandridge and Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston and Bullet Rogan from the major leagues in the first place.
Second, and I know that I'll catch all kinds of hell for this comment, Buck O'Neil was a good player during his career. Bill James, in the Historical Baseball Abstract, compares him to Mark Grace and Mickey Vernon, both very good players. Mark Grace and Mickey Vernon won't be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Buck O'Neil, who is one of the most decent people ever associated with the game, and was a fine player to boot. There is no shame in being very good, but not great. Harold Baines is also a nice man, and my favorite player of all time. He had a very good career, but he's not going into the Hall either, nor should he, and even I wouldn't advocate him.
While I wouldn't consider myself an expert on what we now call the Negro Leagues, I do think I'm fairly knowledgeable. Of the twelve players chosen (along with five mostly non-players), I am completely sold on all but perhaps two. And those two, Ray Brown and Andy Cooper, have good cases; better, I think, than O'Neil. Hell, there are quite a few more (Louis Santop, Spot Poles, Dick Lundy, and of course Minnie Minoso) who have better cases as well, but were also passed over.
So now Congressmen get involved. I'm sure glad that they got all of the nation's problems fixed first.
I'm surprised that no one has played the race card yet. I know that it would make absolutely no sense, but when does that stop some people?
Now, if you want to ask me whose great idea it was to induct a numbers runner for Dutch Schultz into the Hall, feel free. I don't know the answer to that one. At least I'm not as bent out of shape over this as Keith Olbermann. Keith...one of the founding principles of our nation is a secret ballot. Why should a private organization like the Hall of Fame force it's voters to tell us all who was on their ballots?
Olbermann also expresses indignation that two white people were included in the group of 17. There is a reason why they were included. Because they were important leaders in the Negro Leagues, and were accepted by all involved with them, and because their accomplishments make them deserving. Keith, I know that you know better, but if you really don't, here is some light reading to get you up to speed.
So I guess that Olbermann did actually play the race card. Congratulations, Keith, for making yourself appear much more ignorant than you really are.
The committee did good work (well, except maybe for selecting Pompez). The Hall of Fame selection process, by it's nature, is always going to leave someone out, and there is always going to be a group going to bat for those not included. But non-inclusion is not, in itself, an injustice.
"They've insulted Buck O'Neil!"
Where do I want to start here? First of all, it is not an insult to anyone to decide that they are not quite up to the standard of the highest honor that can be given a player. It's an honor to even be considered in the first place. It's not an injustice, either. The injustice was barring O'Neil and Ray Dandridge and Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston and Bullet Rogan from the major leagues in the first place.
Second, and I know that I'll catch all kinds of hell for this comment, Buck O'Neil was a good player during his career. Bill James, in the Historical Baseball Abstract, compares him to Mark Grace and Mickey Vernon, both very good players. Mark Grace and Mickey Vernon won't be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Buck O'Neil, who is one of the most decent people ever associated with the game, and was a fine player to boot. There is no shame in being very good, but not great. Harold Baines is also a nice man, and my favorite player of all time. He had a very good career, but he's not going into the Hall either, nor should he, and even I wouldn't advocate him.
While I wouldn't consider myself an expert on what we now call the Negro Leagues, I do think I'm fairly knowledgeable. Of the twelve players chosen (along with five mostly non-players), I am completely sold on all but perhaps two. And those two, Ray Brown and Andy Cooper, have good cases; better, I think, than O'Neil. Hell, there are quite a few more (Louis Santop, Spot Poles, Dick Lundy, and of course Minnie Minoso) who have better cases as well, but were also passed over.
So now Congressmen get involved. I'm sure glad that they got all of the nation's problems fixed first.
I'm surprised that no one has played the race card yet. I know that it would make absolutely no sense, but when does that stop some people?
Now, if you want to ask me whose great idea it was to induct a numbers runner for Dutch Schultz into the Hall, feel free. I don't know the answer to that one. At least I'm not as bent out of shape over this as Keith Olbermann. Keith...one of the founding principles of our nation is a secret ballot. Why should a private organization like the Hall of Fame force it's voters to tell us all who was on their ballots?
Olbermann also expresses indignation that two white people were included in the group of 17. There is a reason why they were included. Because they were important leaders in the Negro Leagues, and were accepted by all involved with them, and because their accomplishments make them deserving. Keith, I know that you know better, but if you really don't, here is some light reading to get you up to speed.
So I guess that Olbermann did actually play the race card. Congratulations, Keith, for making yourself appear much more ignorant than you really are.
The committee did good work (well, except maybe for selecting Pompez). The Hall of Fame selection process, by it's nature, is always going to leave someone out, and there is always going to be a group going to bat for those not included. But non-inclusion is not, in itself, an injustice.
posted by Jim at
8:32 PM
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