HOF league executives and team owners

[jalbright]

Anybody want to weigh in on these types? I'll put a few posts from my musings thread here.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

Clark Griffith: He's got a better pitching record than I thought (nearly or actually HOF caliber in its own right), and then when you add in the fact he was a reasonably successful manager (career record over .500), he owned a World Champion club and another pennant winner and owned that franchise for a long time, I have to say the combination makes him deserving of the honor.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

Ed Bolden--Negro League

From pages 91-92 in Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues:

A gentlemanly little man, he worked in the Philadelphia post office, and was the owner of the two best-known Negro League teams in the Philadelphia area, the Hilldale Daisies and the Philadelphia Stars. A shy, quiet and modest man who preferred working in the background instead of in the spotlight, [he] is best known as the owner of the Hilldale team that won the first three Eastern Colored League championships in 1923-1925 and the 1925 [Negro] World Series over the Kansas City Monarchs. As the founder of the Eastern Colored League, he was responsible for player raids by eastern teams on the more established Negro National League.

He took over operations for [Hilldale] in 1916, when [it] was a semipro team. The team attained [Negro] major league status the following season and wond a championship in 1921; then came the Eastern Colored League and three straight pennants. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1927, and without his leadership the league folded the following spring.

After he recovered, . . . he organized the Philadelphia Stars . . . . Bolden again raided other clubs for players, and entered the Negro National League in 1934, winning the pennant in the first season in the league. In the championship the team defeated the Chicago American Giants. He remained at the head of the Stars until his death in 1950.

In addition to contributions to black baseball as a team executive, he also served as an officer in three different leagues: the Eastern Colored League, the American Negro League and the Negro National League.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

Cumberland "Cum" Posey--Negro League

From pages 636-638 Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues:

The man who could properly be called the father of the Homestead Grays, his association with the ballclub had roots reaching virtually to the team's inception, and his genius made the Grays a successful franchise. Beginning as a player, he rose through the ranks, proogressing to manager, booking agent, business manager and owner of the ballclub . . . .

[I]n 1912 Posey took charge [of the Grays] and began booking enough games to permit the players to devote all their time to playing baseball.

Within the the next decade the Homestead Grays were the biggest attraction in independent baseball . . . . As more teams appeared, they patterned their operations after Posey's Grays. Posey's dynamic leadership kept the Grays near the top ot the talent pool, and under his guidance they became a team of major-league quality and a dominant dynasty in the Negro Leagues

[Until 1929] Posey split his time between playing and managing [in addition to running the team]. In 1929 he ended his career as an active player and became a bench manager until turning the team over to Vic Harris in 1937 and concentrating on the business end of the Grays . . . .

[W]hen the [American Negro League] folded [in 1930], he returned [the Grays] to independent play, picking up some more stars, including Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson and Judy Johnson. . . .

Posey . . . had built a powerhouse by signing players from other teams, [but now] became the target for Gus Greenlee's similar tactics. Posey lost Charleston, Gibson and Johnson among other players to Greenlee's Pittsburgh Crawfords because he could not match Greenlee's salaries . . . . [With new financial backing] Posey . . . [eventually] lured Gibson back into the fold to form a dynamic power duo with Buck Leonard.

Posey continued to corral top players, keeping the Grays the class of the league [to the time of his death].

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

J L Wilkinson--Negro League

From page 842 of Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues

A white businessman, he pioneered black baseball as the founder and owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, directing the team's destiny from . . . 1920 through the 1947 season. During this time the franchise had two dynasty periods, one in the '20s in the first Negro National League, and the other during the first decade of the Negro American League, beginning in 1937. During the interim, the Monarchs toured as an independent team . . . "scuffling" to remain solvent during the depths of the Depression. . . .

When [Wilkinson] first organized the Monarchs in 1920, Casey Stengel recommended several players from the 25th Infantry team . . . [including Bullet Rogan and Dobie Moore] and they formed a nucleus for his early teams.

Under Wilkinson's guidance the Monarchs captured ten Negro League pennants and two of the four Negro World Series in which they competed . . . .

During the Depression . . . Wilkinson helped pioneer night baseball, installing a portable light system on the beds of truck in 1930. The [purchase of this] system proved so successful that it . . . paid for [itself] during the team's spring training tour of the southwest.

After the color line in major-league baseball was eradicated, the Monarchs eventually sent 27 players into the major leagues, more than any other black team. Among those players were Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Ernie Banks and Elston Howard . . . .

During his years with the franchise, Wilkinson traveled with the team and looked after the best interests of the players, providing the best accomodations available and compensating the players [well]. He was well liked and respected for his honesty by both his players and executives from other teams.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

From the SABR Bioproject on Larry MacPhail, written by Ralph Berger: ELECTED BBF HOF

MacPhail was unquestionably a genius. A list of his innovations and accomplishments in the game boggles the mind:

1. First night game in the major leagues
2. First televised game (August 26, 1939)
3. First to introduce "Old Timers' Games" to the majors
4. First to establish pension funds for club employees throughout all levels of baseball
5. Headed first committee for players' pension funds, the finest in sports
6. First to use air plane travel for baseball teams
7. First to shake up New York City by broadcasting all home and road games. (The first radio broadcast of a baseball game in the majors was by Harold Arlen in Pittsburgh in 1921.)
8. First to introduce yellow baseballs, which were never accepted in baseball came to the fore in both tennis and golf
9. First to regularly schedule doubleheaders
10. First to install a stadium club
11. First to introduce season ticket plan
12. First to develop and introduce protective batting helmets (see McKelvey, The MacPhails)

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

Judge Landis' legacy

My take on it is the key is how much personal credit you give Landis for restoring integrity to the game. If he gets a fair amount of credit there, his contribution can certainly be said to have helped save the game. If you think anybody else could have done as well or better in that regard, then the negatives on the integration side are enough to put him on the negative side of the evaluation. I will say this: if somebody hadn't restored the integrity of the game, I question whether baseball would have survived long enough for integration to even become a significant question. That being the case, if he gets significant credit for restoring integrity to the game, I'd say that his stance on integration diminishes but does not destroy a positive legacy. I tend to think he deserves significant credit in that regard, and while I may have to hold my nose in the manner of dealing with a Leo Durocher or Charlie Commiskey because of his (Landis') stance on integration, I regard him as worthy of the HOF and the BBF HOF.

[jalbright]

I have yet to see a persuasive case for Effa Manley, and I'll leave it at that. Alejandro Pompez is a more substantial person in the history of the Negro Leagues than I had thought, serving as a go-between/peacemaker between the East/West and other factions in the Negro Leagues and serving in key offices. He was involved in illegal numbers rackets when they didn't call it "the lottery" and it's run by the state, and in so doing, he associated with some very unsavory folks. I can live with him, I guess, but I'd rather honor a clean guy who did a lot like Buck O'Neill than him.

Sol White was an early blackball star and even helped form and lead some early powerhouse teams in Philadelphia. He also did author a key book on the early Negro Leagues. He is probably a better choice than Pompez

[jalbright]

Jack Dunn

I'll just quote someone else's work this time.
There is a neat little summary of Dunn's career in Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia, but the best - and most comprehensive - portrait of Dunn I have run across is in Neil J. Sullivan's The Minors.

Dunn operated an indepedently run franchise that was the model of what minor league teams "could have been." The International League, which the Orioles dominated throughout Dunn's tenure, was the strongest of the minor leagues during these years.

As a scout and talent evaluator, Dunn "showed persistence and thoroughness in being able to find such a player [as Ruth] in such an obscure place."

"Dunn's eye for talent was matched by a fierce determination to win, insistence of discipline, and generous rewards for the players who met his standards."

"Jack Dunn was a very serious businessman who made his living from the sport of baseball and who profited by extending opportunity to talented young men. Dunn was no wealthy sportsman pursuing a hobby; nor was he an idle figurehead who awaited profits while subordinates did the work. He knew the business of baseball as a player, manager, and owner. He knew what was required to be successful, including the risks that had to be assumed. Unlike other minor league owners who were content to be wards of the majors, Dunn trusted his own abilities and work ethic."

"In a league of teams that were independent franchises, Dunn had no peer. He repeatedly discovered talent from sandlots to reform schools to colleges. Few other baseball executives worked as hard or as successfully as Dunn."

Sullivan notes that Baltimore crushed good competition in exhibitions with major league teams and in season play with many high-quality IL teams. Connie Mack is said to have trusted Dunn's baseball judgement explicitly. McGraw also had confidence in Dunn's ability to find good players; both he and Mack negotiated with Dunn on a regular basis, seeking to purchase players from him.

Dunn and Branch Rickey were practically separated at birth, according to Sullivan, who writes that both were "talented and tireless scouts who found great players at the very beginning of their careers." Unfortunately for the minor leagues, Rickey's genius continued to work towards their enslavement after Dunn's heart attack in 1928 put a sudden end to his efforts to save them.

Dunn's Orioles were a team that was the equal (or better) of most major league clubs of its day, run as a one-man operation, by a bright and energetic baseball man who, through intelligence and hard work created an enormously successful dynasty. That this is a "minor league" club is more a designation giving it in a sweeping endictment by the self-appointed "major" leagues as opposed to an actual statement on the excellence of the organization or quality of the teams it fielded.

[jalbright]

Does George Steinbrenner deserve a spot in the HOF? I recognize his success, but I wonder if his influence has been good for baseball as a whole. If his impact isn't negative, he belongs in, but if it is negative, the question becomes how negative was it and is that enough to counteract the positives? I don't think I can answer that one until after George has left the game for a few years.

[64Cards]

Regarding Larry MacPhail-doubleheaders were around a long time before he came to MLB in the 30's. Maybe he started the notion of "split" doubleheaders. [day/nite w/2 seperate admissions] I also would believe that season ticket plans were already around before MacPhail, but he was a pretty innovative guy.

The guy whose presence in the HOF is a total mystery to me is Tom Yawkey. His franchise has the dubious distinction of being the last to integrate [1959, 12 years after Robinson & Doby] in his 40 some years of owning the Sox, they won a grand total of 3 pennants, no WS. Even with Yawkeys money and with no competition after the Braves left, the Sox were, for a while, in terrible shape in the 60's, both on the field and at the gate, till they turned things around in 67. I heard that Yawkey was a great guy, very generous, and lot of fun to drink with, but I don't get his HOF credentials.

[jalbright]

Regarding Larry MacPhail-doubleheaders were around a long time before he came to MLB in the 30's. Maybe he started the notion of "split" doubleheaders. [day/nite w/2 seperate admissions] I also would believe that season ticket plans were already around before MacPhail, but he was a pretty innovative guy..

I quoted the source. It's a pretty reliable one. One thing I think you missed is the regular scheduling of doubleheaders.

Jim Albright

[64Cards]

I quoted the source. It's a pretty reliable one. One thing I think you missed is the regular scheduling of doubleheaders.

Jim Albright
I'd still believe that they were scheduling doubleheaders way before Macphail came around in the mid-30's. I know they did have to play quite a few as a make-up of a rain-out, but most teams scheduled dh's on Sundays and holidays.

[64Cards]

Just for the hell of it, I checked the baseball library website, where you can get the day to day scores of past seasons for each team, even has the day of the week. The 1926 Cardinals played 19 DH's that season. Some were no doubt make-up's of rainouts, but they played DH's on the 3 holidays, plus a number of Saturdays and Sundays. In the days of train travel they would have had to have played a lot of DH's to work in the much longer travel time they needed.

[wamby]

Regarding Larry MacPhail-doubleheaders were around a long time before he came to MLB in the 30's. Maybe he started the notion of "split" doubleheaders. [day/nite w/2 seperate admissions] I also would believe that season ticket plans were already around before MacPhail, but he was a pretty innovative guy.

I think it may have been the opposite. I believe that the morning-afternoon doubleheader was commonly used before MacPhail's time. He may have popularized the two games for one admission doubleheader.

I also doubt that MacPhail was the first to issue season tickets.

[Paul Wendt]

I believe that season tickets were available in some cities in the 1870s. If so, I would read histories of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, at least, before saying first in the 1870s. I wonder whether season tickets were commonly offered by the owners of venues. The owner of a Hall or Theater, who is also the booker and promoter of events staged there, sells a ticket good for admission to all events or all spectator events for the season - dramatic production, bicycle race, lecture by traveling astronomer, etc.

Certainly (prospective) new ballclubs around 1900 would (try to) raise money by subscription: a share of the team and a ticket to every game.

I have read some newspaper coverage 1876 and earlier, some 1896 and later, essentially nothing between those dates. I'm not sure I have read of a season ticket in the early period but I think probably so.

[Paul Wendt]

In 1946 the Permanent Committee, a.k.a. Old-Timers Committee, elected 11 executives to the Honor Rolls of Baseball. The Veterans Committees later elected two of them to the Hall of Fame, Ed Barrow in 1953 and Barney Dreyfuss this winter.

1946 Honor Roll - Executives
Ernest S. Barnard
Ed Barrow
John E. Bruce
John T. Brush
Barney Dreyfuss
Charles H. Ebbets
August "Garry" Herrmann
John A. Heydler
J.A. Robert "Bob" Quinn
Arthur H. Soden
Nicholas E. Young

See "Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1946" at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Hall_of_Fame_balloting,_1946), "Old-Timers Committee" section, for good coverage of both the controversial election of 11 players and the Rolls of Honor.

Wikipedia has entries, some much too short, for all but one of the eleven honored executives. (John E. Bruce, American League legal counsel before 1903; National Commission secretary 1903-1920.)

Soden and Young were active from the 1870s and 1860s until 1902 or so; Brush equally in both centuries; Bruce, Dreyfuss, Ebbets, Herrmann, and Heydler early in the century. Only Barnard, Barrow, and Quinn were active mainly in the 1920s and after, the preceding 25 years.

add (below this line):
The title of this thread distinguishes "league officials" and "owners"

officials:
Barnard, Bruce, Herrmann, Heydler, and Young must have been honored mainly or wholly for work at the league level and above. Among them only Herrmann owned a club (Cincinnati). He chaired the three-man National Commission throughout its history, 1903-1920. Barnard served the Cleveland club for a few years as a general manager and for a few years as chief executive, a la John Harrington in Boston 80 years later, acting for the widow and the estate of Jim Dunn. He succeeded Ban Johnson as AL president after several years of mediating between Johnson and Landis [wikipedia].

owners:
Brush, Dreyfuss, Ebbets, Quinn, and Soden owned clubs. Four are famous owners. Quinn became the president of the Hall of Fame about this time.

general managers:
Ed Barrow never owned more than a minor share of a major league club, afaik. He was an important minor league president, Red Sox manager including 1918, and New York general manager in the 1920s-1930s. I suppose he was recognized mainly as the man most responsible for the Yankees dynasty.
Barrow fits the neighboring thread for "managers and general managers"

Barrow was elected by the Veterans Committee at its first meeting in 1953. None of the ten officials and owners was elected until Dreyfuss this winter.

[Paul Wendt]

Regarding Larry MacPhail-doubleheaders were around a long time before he came to MLB in the 30's. Maybe he started the notion of "split" doubleheaders. [day/nite w/2 seperate admissions] I also would believe that season ticket plans were already around before MacPhail, but he was a pretty innovative guy.
Season ticket plans - see my informed speculation in the antepreceding article
(maybe a menu of alternative season ticket plans?)

Doubleheaders - now so-called split doubleheaders were an institution in the major leagues dating from the 1880s or earlier and they were the rule a generation later.

One cornerstone of the National League was 50c admission. It was against the league constitution to admit someone to any NL championship game (in the "stands" under a ceiling, not standing behind a rope or beyond the outfield, not sure about bleacher seats) for less than 50c, except by contract with the visiting team. Ladies Days and two-for-one doubleheaders were introduced essentially as discount prices. I don't know any of the details of their regulation but they were sometimes discussed in newspapers and I'm sure they were discussed at league meetings.

[Paul Wendt]

Does George Steinbrenner deserve a spot in the HOF? I recognize his success, but I wonder if his influence has been good for baseball as a whole. If his impact isn't negative, he belongs in, but if it is negative, the question becomes how negative was it and is that enough to counteract the positives? I don't think I can answer that one until after George has left the game for a few years.

Barney Dreyfuss and Walter O'Malley were inducted this weekend.

There is a lively neighboring thread on George Steinbrenner. George Steinbrenner (http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=71356&page=2) (page 2, revival begins #27).
Certainly Steinbrenner's case is timely in Cooperstown and therefore in coopversation. It is an exaggeration to say the NBHOFM has been re-made to honor ballclub owners but where there's hyperbole there's some truth.

I have contributed to thread both specifically re Steinbrenner and generally re owners. I have determined to repeat (below) and continue (next) the general remarks in this thread.

Quoting myself from George Steinbrenner #63 (page 3)
>>
It may be useful to recognize what a great exception was the Hall of Fame's induction of Tom Yawkey. If Macker is right about Fetzer, his induction would also be exceptional. Probably the Baseball Hall of Fame did recognize Yawkey partly for his contributions to the Baseball Hall of Fame rather than to baseball. We would be better off if they had said that about Yawkey (and about NL President, Commissioner Frick).

Probably the most important move toward recognizing the magnates in the Hall was made only last summer, 2007, when the board of directors rearranged the veterans committees again. Marvin Miller was close to election while Bowie Kuhn also ran. Buzzie Bavasi and Walter O'Malley both made strong showings, neck and neck. They created a new committee, half full of owners and chief executives, and what happened? Barney Dreyfuss came from nowhere to election. Kuhn became a no-brainer, Miller a no-chancer. O'Malley slaughtered Bavasi. Ewing Kauffman and John Fetzer came from nowhere to fourth and fifth place.
<<

[Paul Wendt]

Has anyone noticed how few club owners and chief executives the Hall of Fame has inducted and when? Make a list of the Hall of Fame owners and CEs who were not also general managers or field managers: name, club, career timespan, induction date. We have Barney Dreyfuss and Walter O'Malley, inducted this weekend, and . . . drumroll . . .

Strong support even for Buzzie Bavasi, equal to that even for Walter O'Malley, was entirely business as usual during most? or all? of the first 70 years of the institution.

The Hall of Fame did not elect Jack Ruppert, but did elect Ed Barrow and Miller Huggins --and Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel and George Weiss who followed, and Clark Griffith who got it going.

The Hall of Fame did not elect Sam Breadon, but did elect Branch Rickey --and Frank Frisch, essentially as a player, and Billy Southworth, but only this year.

The Hall of Fame did not elect Walter O'Malley, but did elect Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey and Leo Durocher --and Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda who followed, and Uncle Robby.


I don't have a satisfying version of the list that I call for at the top.
Of course there is a research question or three.

1.
Is there a coherent category of owner/CEs who were not also general managers or field managers? If so, how clearly can we put particular owner/CEs in that category.

Connie Mack was co-owner and field manager of the Philadelphia Athletics while Barney Dreyfuss was owner and Fred Clarke was field manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Certainly it is reasonable to say that Mack was the general manager of the Athletics, or to say that the 20th century general manager's role was his. What about the Pirates? How reasonable is it to say that Dreyfuss was "not also general manager"?

What about Jack Ruppert? Ed Barrow is in the Hall of Fame mainly for his role in building the Yankees team, mainly while Ruppert was the primary owner and Miller Huggins the field manager. Probably the general manager role should be attributed to player-manager Clark Griffith when the club was established. Ruppert & Huston's roles when they acquired the team, I don't know. For some time between Griffith and Huggins, the Yankees owner may have been the most important actor in the 20th century general manager role.

What about Tom Yawkey? Immediately he was the most important person building the team. By some time early in his career he worked with GM Eddie Collins and FM Joe Cronin. By the time the Red Sox achieved permanency as a strong team on the field, he was an "interfering owner". For that reason and because the 1934-35 deals didn't make the team a winner, he is easy to classify as simply an owner.

Walter O'Malley is honored first and maybe second for his work in traditional ownership roles.

If George Steinbrenner is honored, he will be a mixed case. He is considered an interfering owner because he always had an executive or a staff for the traditional general managerial work. They did a lot of work, and everyone has used such a staff since I don't know when. But my impression is that George S. was involved in some particular decisions about acquiring and using players, and negotiating their contracts, for players below the highest level where many or all owners are involved.

[Paul Wendt]

2.
Beside the research questions about the baseball business there are research questions about the Hall of Fame elections, committee meetings, citations, and how the Hall of Fame members are subsequently perceived.
What did they1 elect him for?
What do they2 say about him?

For example, whatever the role of Barney Dreyfuss in building the Pittsburgh Pirates team and keeping it happy, it may be that the committee electing him talked only about making the 1903 World Series and making Forbes Field and, who knows, making a spirit of sportsmanship in the National League of the 1910s and 1920s. Maybe the Hall of Fame staff covers only those traditional ownership roles in providing him with a bronze plaque and writing him up for its website and paper publications. If so, then we might say Barney Dreyfuss is simply a Hall of Fame owner today, regardless of whether he was simply a ballclub owner a century ago.

[jalbright]

With Dreyfus, is he the one who paid for Forbes Field, the first of the concrete and steel ballparks (and at least as influential in its time as Camden Yards is in ours)? I don't know that paying the bills for such a thing is enough, but whoever paid to build it deserves some credit.

[Brad Harris]

Excellent points and the fact that the Hall of Fame has not been clear about why these men were elected at the time of their induction speaks volumes on the haphazardness which is the hallmark of the Veterans Committee.

[Paul Wendt]

What is a "concrete and steel ballpark"? The only explanation I know from an architect is that it isn't clear. Forbes Field and Shibe Park in Pit and Phi around 1909, The Palace of the Fans and the new Sportsmen's Park in Cin and SL around 1901, Baker Bowl in Phi around 1894 --I believe all were or are sometimes called the first something, and it is something about concrete and steel and stone as opposed to wood. Certainly the new ballparks in Phi and Cin around 1894 and 1901, which replaced ballparks destroyed by fire, were designed to be fireproof.

- Baker Bowl was named maybe a decade ago on SABR-L or in email exchange offlist. Architectural critic John Pastier told us or me that Baker Bowl could be called the first concrete and steel ballpark in some sense. I don't recall the sense, maybe didn't understand it then.
- This summer in daily newspapers, mainly Chicago, I have read Brush in Cin around 1901 quoted in terms such as "The materials will be concrete and stone. We will have steel girders."
- In Sporting Life and maybe elsewhere a few years ago, I read some coverage of the great achievement by Robert Hedges and Co. (new St Louis AL club) in putting up the new ballpark very quickly and making it a great one. The greatness was partly about materials --it would be fireproof.
- Let me refer to the wikipedia entry on Shibe park, but this is not the first time I have read it.
>>Shibe Park, known for the last one-third of its existence as Connie Mack Stadium, was a Major League Baseball park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When it opened April 12, 1909, it became Major League Baseball's first steel-and-concrete stadium.[1]<<
The citation is A.D. Suehsdorf, The Great American Baseball Scrapbook (1978)

Wikipedia on Forbes Field also cites Suehsdorf. He may be the source for the systematic data featured in a sidebar at the entries for many ballparks.
The sidebar for Forbes Field includes
> Broke ground March 1, 1909
> Opened June 30, 1909
> Architect Osborn Engineering
whereas for Shibe Park those dates are
> 1908
> April 12, 1909
> William Steele and Sons

Somewhere I have seen a credit to Al Reach . . .
Baker Bowl:
>>
Opened April 30, 1887
Closed June 30, 1938
Demolished 1950
Owner Philadelphia Phillies
Surface Grass
Construction cost $80,000 USD
Architect Al Reach
. . .
The ballpark's second incarnation opened in 1895. Its upper deck was notable for having the first cantilevered design in a sports stadium and was the first ballpark to be constructed primarily from steel and brick.
<<
Ah, steel and brick, not concrete and steel or stone

[KCGHOST]

I am a pretty hard liner on this topic. Non-players should not be elected to the HoF. If you want to give them "wings" have at it. It is simply way too subjective a process to elect these people.

I mean listen to the rhetoric we heard after the election of the immortal Bowie Kuhn. All you heard about was what difficult times he had to cope with. Those were difficult times but do any of you who lived through those times also think that Kuhn did even an okay job?? Hell, If Kuhn is the yardstick Selig is a mortal lock.

[Michael Green]

I don't have a problem with non-players in the Hall of Fame, since I think it is supposed to recognize contributions to the game. Also, how many of the great managers--I'm thinking of, say, Connie Mack and Miller Huggins--would be in for their playing?

HoF elections always have been political, especially the Veterans Committee and its various permutations. For example, Ted Williams pushed hard for Bobby Doerr, who may well have been deserving. Warren Giles was on the committee for years and kept Larry MacPhail, whom I would rank with Branch Rickey as one of the two most innovative and influential executives in baseball history, from getting in. Why? Giles didn't like him. And now his son helped Bowie Kuhn get in.

Marvin Miller's non-induction is a bigger crime than Kuhn's induction--and as Miller said, he thought the goal was not to keep him out, but to get people like Kuhn in. I am a fan of good umpires, and the Hall of Fame was been good and careful in that regard to put in the most respected umpires. By that standard, Doug Harvey should be there.

Among executives, Buzzie Bavasi deserves backing. He had a lot to do with the winning Dodgers teams of the 1950s and 1960s, was behind the Angels teams that did well in the 1980s, and is forgotten for his role as the GM who helped Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella integrate the lower minors. Someday, John Schuerholz should go in for building those Braves teams, but he's still active to some degree.