John Holway comments on new Negro League HOFers

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Posted By: Matt Goebel

Thank you so much for your post, it is very refreshing to hear the actual merits of some of these guys being discussed. In fact, that's the best part of this whole thing is that some of these long forgotten players are being talked about and remembered.

Like most of us, I'm sure Holway has his favorites, but yes he is a knowledgable and respected historian. You will notice that the guys he agrees with are all the "Negro League" candidates that spent the majority of their careers in the organized leagues and have documented statistics from league play. It is harder to evaluate the "pre-Negro League" guys (i.e. - Hill, Mendez, Taylor, Santop, etc.) because of the lack of hard data. You have to take into account some anecdotal evidence, contemporary reviews, first-person accounts and other subjective data. This is a difficult task, but you have to do it to get the flavor of pre-1920 black baseball. Pete Hill was raved about by his peers and was clearly one of the best, if not THE best player of the era (besides, look what he did at an advanced age in the first couple years of the NNL). In my opinion, and I may be biased as well, he is a no-brainer pick for the HOF.

How great is it that we're talking about this!!!

BTW, I would also love to see the article if it is available online.

Matt