HOF - Veteran's Committee Selection Process

[bcbgcbrcb]

I just started reading a baseball book entitled "The Politics of Glory" by Bill James which was published in 1994. In one of the early chapters, the process of HOF'er selections is discussed, including the Veteran's Committee's responsibilities. It mentions that one of the groups that falls under their jurisdiction are Negro Leaguers. Since the mass election of 18 in 2006 by a separately established panel, I don't recall seeing a single Negro Leaguer on any of the Veteran's Committee's ballots over the past 9 years. I am not referring to guys like Minnie Minoso who starred in the Major Leagues for many years, strictly pre-integration guys.

Why is this? Did rules changes take place since the book came out in 1994 that I don't know about?

[Kenny Cole]

Phil,

The Veteran's Committee rules have changed several times since The Politics of Glory came out 1994. However, the 2006 Negro League elections had nothing to do with the Veteran's Committee. That was a special election under the auspices of The Committee on African-American Baseball.

What happened was that MLB gave the HOF a $250,000 grant to begin a study of the Negro Leagues, 1890-1960, in order to locate potentially qualified HOF candidates. The HOF hired three recognized Negro League experts to oversee the study, which was conducted by many other researchers. They went through every existing box score they could find of sanctioned Negro League Play in 128 newspapers from 1920-1954 to compile their data. Purportedly they found 100% of the box scores from the 1920's, 90% of those from the 1930s, and 50-70% of those from the 1940s. The earlier box scores were apparently much sketchier.

The HOF then commissioned two committees, a screening committee and a voting committee. From the various names recommended, the screening committee came up with 94 potential HOF candidates. It then created two ballots -- one for Negro League players, managers, executives, etc. from 1920 on and one for those who had played before 1920. The screening committee met and cut the 94 names down to 39, 29 on the post-1920 ballot and 10 on the pre-1920 ballot. The voting committee then voted yes or no on each candidate and those who got 75% of the vote got elected. The end result was that 17 were elected.

The short answer to your question is that those who weren't elected now appear to be in limbo. I may be wrong,but I don't think any of the three veteran's committees currently in existence have jurisdiction over Negro League candidates. Unless MLB or the HOF sanctions another special election, I don't see any more getting in under the current rules.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Thanks for the info, Kenny. I figured things might have changed since 1994.