MEMO TO THE HALL OF FAME: INDUCT ALL 39 REMAINING NEGRO LEAGUE CANDIDATES TO THE HALL

Presently there are 213 players inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Of them, 153 began their careers during baseball’s segregated era and 60 began their careers, including Jackie Robinson, during baseball’s integrated era. Of the 153 players from the segregated era, 18 (12%) are former Negro League players. Of the 60 players from the integrated era, 25 (42%) would previously have been relegated to the Negro Leagues.

 

In 2000, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, intent on rectifying the situation to the extent merited by player performance, sought proposals for a $250,000 study of the Negro Leagues. In 2001, the Baseball Researchers and Authors Group (BRAG) were selected to carry out the landmark study. In 2005, the study was completed and findings reported to the Hall. In turn, the Hall appointed a blue ribbon panel to recommend and ultimately select players deemed meritorious of induction.

 

4800 players participated in the Negro Leagues. 94 players (2%) were given very serious consideration and, of those, 31 players (and 8 other figures) have been identified and remain under consideration for induction. A decision on which ones (if any) will be selected will be made in late February 2006.

 

It is my strong personal belief that all 31 players (and 8 others) should be selected for the following three reasons:

 

1. All of the players were exceptional talents and performed at the very top 1% of all players appearing in the Negro Leagues. A case for statistical merit can be made for all 31 players.
2. All 4,800 players who appeared in the Negro Leagues suffered in varying degrees due to the lack of opportunities for them to pursue a career in organized baseball. This exercise will likely never be repeated, at least not in this format, and to deny any now – at this late stage (after having been passed through a screen that eliminated 99.4% of their contemporaries) – would be to add to that suffering. While, conversely, to induct all of them would serve, in a small way, to ease some pain and provide for some semblance of harmony.
3. Even if all 31 were to be inducted, the percent of players in the Hall whose careers began during the segregated era who toiled in the Negro Leagues would still be far short (49 of 184 or 27%) of the percent of players whose careers began since integration who would have been Negro Leaguers under the segregated arrangement.