I'd like to see more pioneers from the 1800's included.
I'm also ok with owners/executives getting in.
Both groups shaped the game, at different times, and in different ways, but the influence is there.
I'm surprised Ruppert wasn't already in. The team he built basically remade baseball in a lot of ways, and in some ways prepared it for broadcast on radio at a time when that became a huge influence in the country. And without that, pro sports itself in the US could be very different.
Steinbrenner I think should be in eventually, his use of free agency made its own changes in the game.
Billy Beane probably should be as well, there just isn't enough history yet to tell just how large of an impact he will have had. But a change away from paying a lot of money for free agents and building competetive teams on a small budget is just as big a change as Steinbrenner paying as much as he did for some players. Maybe in a few years when some information comes out about how the teams that were on the list to be contracted out of the league survived that impact can be measured a bit better. Would we even have the Nationals? Would Baseball have changed to a system like some international sports with a couple "major league" levels sort of like soccer?
The early pioneers shouldn't be held to the arbitrary 10 year limit. There's enough information out there that the influence someone had on the game in the mid 1800's should be something that can be researched, if it's not well known yet.
Steve B
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