Things of Interest

Maybe I missed it, but I don't think the Hall vote was SABR sanctioned or led by SABR (I think I would have known about this, as I receive a lot of info from SABR as a card carrying member). Sure, 8 of the 12 people who voted are SABR members, but I think that's more correlations without causation than anything. The Hall picked twelve baseball historians. Since these people are baseball historians, there's also a good chance that they are SABR members. I think it would be hard to find 12 experts on the Negro Leagues who aren't members of SABR. But, at least in my opinion, that's more of an issue with the Hall of Fame and it's election process than it is an issue with SABR, which is only tangentially related to this issue.

But why should SABR members resign over this? It's not like SABR has decided to do whatever is necessary to keep O'Neil (and Minoso) out of the Hall. Is Keith Olbermann resigning from SABR? He's one of the organization's most well known members.

I apologize if I missed it, but I didn't think this was a SABR run affair. To me there's a huge difference between having 8 people who are SABR members participate in this vote and having SABR, as an organization, decide the Hall of Fame fates of these 39 people. The latter would reflect on SABR as a whole, but I don't think the former does.

There has been some discussion about it on SABR e-lists, but most of it centers around the secrecy of the Hall's voting process and the omissions of Buck O'Neil and Minnie Minoso. It's pretty clear that the public sentiment is that O'Neil and Minoso should be in the Hall. But would 75% of baseball fans want each of them in? I'm not sure, but that's the amount of votes you have to get to earn admission. O'Neil is a tough case too. His stats don't rival Mickey Mantle's or Willie Mays's. But Buck has been an amazing contributor to the game over many decades in many different ways. As Rob Neyer, another SABR member (but not a voter in this election) stated, Buck O'Neil is a tough case because there isn't anyone else in the Hall like him. Buck's career and sum of contributions is much greater than many Hall members. But he wasn't HoF great at any of the traditional things that get you into the hall (on field excellence, ownership, etc.). Sadly for Buck, it seems that his contributions, particularly in bringing the history of the Negro Leagues to people, aren't being recognized.

Olbermann had the head guy of SABR on his show Friday night talking about the Buck O'Neill business.  I'd think the discussion or some summary of it can be found online.  

Seems to me there will have to be some way worked out to recognize people like Buck O'Neill in the Hall of Fame--if for no other reason than baseball can't afford to be shafting its best ambassadors.