Considering Minnie Minoso’s Hall of Fame Case
From SABR member Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation on November 9, 2011:
When I wrote last week about the Hall of Fame’s Golden Era ballot — to be considered in a few weeks by a 16-person committee — I wrote in some detail about a few of the 10 candidates on the ballot but, due to space and time and continuum issues, ignored most of them.
Among those I ignored: Minnie Miñoso, who deserved better. Or whose story deserved better, anyway. Fortunately, Stuart Miller has made Miñoso’s Hall of Fame case at length, and in the New York Times, no less.
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Most of Miñoso’s case, made here by Miller and by others elsewhere, is that he ranked as one of the American League’s greatest players in the 1950s. Which is perfectly true. But it was only in the 1950s. He collected three base hits in the 1940s, and hit .275/.354/.412 in the 1960s, playing only two seasons as a regular.
Doing so well in a calendar decade is impressive, but that alone shouldn’t get a guy into the Hall of Fame, any more than Jack Morris belongs in the Hall of Fame because he won more games than anyone else in the 1980s, or Mark Grace belongs in the Hall of Fame because he got more hits than anyone else in the 1990s.
Read the full article here: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/11/9/2548871/making-minnie-minosos-hall-of-fame-case
Originally published: November 9, 2011. Last Updated: November 9, 2011.