Researchers boost bid to put Ross Barnes in Hall of Fame
From Howard W. Appell at the Livingston County News on August 16, 2013:
The effort to get a Livingston County native inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown was given a boost this month when a group of baseball researchers selected Ross Barnes as its “2013 Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend.”
Barnes, who was born and raised in Livingston County, has always been acknowledged as one of the greatest baseball players of the 19th century, but his Major League playing career came up a year short of Hall of Fame eligibility.
An effort to get Barnes into the Hall was renewed this spring by Gary Passamonte of Mount Morris, who will be gathering signatures on a petition at this weekend’s Mount Morris Italian Festival.
The 279 members of the Society for American Baseball Research announced Aug. 1 during its annual convention that it had voted Barnes its “Overlooked Legend.” The category is for a 19th Century player, manager, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Barnes easily won the election, scoring 646 points and besting runners-up who included Tony Mullane with 583 points, Doc Adams with 458 points and Bob Caruthers with 454 points.
While the SABR vote carries no official sanctioning of Barnes for Hall of Fame inclusion, it is an honor which might be taken into consideration by the committee which will be nominating players for consideration in a 2015 Hall of Fame vote among pre-integration (1946 and earlier) candidates. Deacon White, Barnes’ teammate with Boston and Chicago, received SABR’s “Overlooked Legend” vote in 2010. and was inducted last month into the Hall of Fame.
Read the full article here: http://thelcn.com/2013/08/16/researchers-boost-barnes-bid-for-hall-of-fame/
Related link: To learn more about the 19th Century Overlooked Legends Projects, click here
Originally published: August 26, 2013. Last Updated: August 26, 2013.