Keep Hall of Fame door open for Negro League baseball

     Rap Dixon         Newt Allen




 CI Taylor                                       Bill Byrd

Two weeks ago the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Pre-integration Committee voted on ten candidates for induction next summer.  None of the ten were from the Negro League baseball era.   No one from that era has been selected for induction into the hallowed halls of the museum in Cooperstown, New York since 2006.  The 17 inducted that year are profiled in my book Last Train to Cooperstown.  Is the door for other candidates from the Negro Leagues closed?

For years the Hall of Fame’s Veteran’s Committee had been responsible for considering candidates who failed to get the necessary votes needed for induction during their initial years of eligibility.  However, in 2010 the committee was restructured into three separate committees.  The Pre-integration Committee was created to consider candidates that existed prior to 1947, the year Jackie Robinson crossed the “invisible color line” to become the first African American or dark-skinned Latino to play Major League baseball.  The other two created were the Golden Era Committee to consider potential Hall of Fame candidates from the period 1947 – 1973 and the Expansion Era Committee to consider those from after 1973.

With a grant from Major League Baseball, the Hall of Fame in 2006 created a special committee of baseball historians to give a thorough review of the Negro League baseball era.  Based on the committee’s work, 99 individuals were identified as eligible for Hall of Fame recognition.  Of those, a final vote was taken on 39 of which 17 were recommended to be a part of the 2006 induction class.

It will be the responsibility of the Pre-integration Committee for adding others that are deserving recognition from the Negro League era.  The committee meets every three years and so far there have been no nominations from that era.  The legitimacy of Negro League baseball is no longer in question.  It is time to give a second look at some of the 82 identified from the black ball era, but not chosen by the 2006 special committee.

As I stated in The Last Train to Cooperstown;

“It is uncertain as to whether any of the other former Negro League players and executives/managers not chosen during the 2006 selection process will be someday elected into the Hall of Fame.  Although one, John “Buck” O’Neil, has a statue now at Cooperstown recognizing him as Negro League baseball’s greatest ambassador, he did not get selected for induction in 2006 as a player.  Also not selected were:  “Cannonball” Dick Redding, who some say threw the ball as hard as Hall of Famer “Smokey” Joe Williams; Grant “Home Run” Johnson; Dick Lundy; Newt Allen; C. I. Taylor; or Minnie Minoso who also had an All-Star Major League career.  They will be included in the on-going debate along with former Major League players such as Gil Hodges, Roger Maris, and others about who deserves a plaque in Cooperstown.

But being a part of the black baseball era should not negatively affect the Negro Leaguers in this debate.  Negro League baseball has come from behind the “invisible color line” and is now clearly identified as an everlasting fixture of baseball history.  The 17 Hall of Fame inductees from the Negro Leagues that arrived on the train to Cooperstown in 2006 cemented that fact”.

  For more information go to http://booklaunch.io/kevinlmitchell/last-train-to-cooperstown.