Jaffe: Breaking down the Hall of Fame’s 2016 Pre-Integration ballot
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated on December 2, 2015:
In politics and business, the timing of the release of news is often revealing, with the worst of it often coming forth on a Friday afternoon so that it will receive less attention over the weekend. The Baseball Hall of Fame didn’t officially announce its 10-candidate Pre-Integration Era Committee ballot on a Friday (though they did date its press release accordingly). Instead, the Hall issued it on Monday, Oct. 5, the day between the end of the 2015 regular season and the start of the postseason, where it was guaranteed to slip below the radar and avoid instant analysis because of the buildup to the volume of playoff action to follow.
Given the timing (which was more than three weeks ahead of last year’s post-World Series release), only the most charitable reading can counter the inference that the Hall isn’t exactly bursting with pride over this election. Not because there are glaring faults with its candidates, but because the era-based process means shining yet another spotlight on the game’s interminable all-white period, and because the process itself hardly looks like a winner, particularly with the institution having apparently closed the book on candidates from the Negro Leagues. At a time when Major League Baseball is justifiably coming under fire for its lack of diversity among managers and general managers, it’s difficult to miss the fact that the three-for-one split of the Veterans Committee starting with the 2012 induction year has produced a lack of color, to say the least.
Read the full article here: http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/12/02/hall-of-fame-pre-integration-era-ballot-bill-dahlen-wes-ferrell
Originally published: December 2, 2015. Last Updated: December 2, 2015.