Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Minnie Minoso and the Hall of Fame. Is 2011 the year?

As reported last November by the Negro League Baseball Players Association: 

A five-member screening committee of Negro league baseball historians, appointed by the Hall of Fame's Board of Directors, has selected a slate of Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues candidates for consideration for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Then on February 27, 2006 a special 12 member voting committee of historians will meet in Tampa to vote none, one, or more into the Hall of Fame. There are 39 candidates.

This special ballot is profound for two reasons.  First it provides an opportunity for some great ballplayers to get fair consideration for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Secondly, the voting will be conducted by a dozen of the most knowledgeable men and women in regards to Negro League history.

While there were special elections in the past, and elections by the "Old Timers Committee," Negro League players, slighted during the height of their careers continue to be slighted after they ran their last base.

Election to the Hall of Fame will not be easy.  Fortunately there is no artificial limit on the number of players that can enter the Hall of fame through this ballot.  However, to make it to Cooperstown, the player must receive a three quarters vote, or nine of the twelve committee members. Considering the members have greatly differing areas of expertise, although some have co-written books together, most are academics with strong opinions, so nine votes could be very tough for any candidate to accumulate.

I have a special interest in the outcome, having railed for years about the injustice done to one player who should have been elected long ago.

His real name is Saturino Orestes Armas Minoso y Arrieta, born in Havana, Cuba, November 29, 1922. 

Bill James considers Minnie Minoso the 85th best player in the history of the game:

Minoso didn't get to play in the majors until he was 28 years old, but had a better career after age 28 than almost any Hall of Fame left/right fielder. Minoso hit for power, drove in 100 runs like clockwork, was a Gold Glove outfielder and one of the best baserunners of his time. Had he gotten the chance to play in the Majors when he was 21 years old, I think he'd probably be rated among the top thirty players of all time.

Minoso was in between. He didn't play long enough in the Negro Leagues like Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson, and he did not get to the Majors early, like a 22 year-old Ernie Banks.

He was 21 in 1945 when he played his first fall season of Cuban Baseball with Maraino hitting .294. The next year was he hitting .309 for the New York Cubans. The following season, 1947, Minoso again led the New York Cubans as they captured the Negro National League pennant and easily defeated the Cleveland Buckeyes to win the Negro League World Series. In that Series, Minoso was the offensive star, batting over .400.

I first saw Minoso play against Boston at Comiskey Park in 1952, the second of three consecutive years that he led the American League in stolen bases with 22.  By that time Minoso was a star by anyone's standards.

The closest I ever got to Minoso was in 1954. The Chicago White Sox stayed at the Piccadilly Hotel, just two blocks from my home. Once the season started, every day after school we headed to the Piccadilly about 3:30 pm. The White Sox would be returning from the day game by 4:00 pm. Every White Sox player stayed at the Piccadilly except for two.  Jack Harshmann had his entire family with him and lived in an apartment about a mile away.

Minoso drove up to the hotel in his dark green Cadillac convertible; it was a '54 El Dorado. He dropped off the first of the great Venezuelan shortstops, Chico Carrasquel, and then headed further south.  Word was that he lived somewhere near 63rd Street. 

Minoso was black. He was the first black Cuban to play in the Major Leagues. He was the first black Latin player. 

From 1954 until 1960, my last summer hanging around the hotel, I never saw a black, man or woman, ball player or not, go through the front doors of the Piccadilly Hotel.  In places like Baltimore, or Boston, or in the deep south during spring training things were worse:

The Pyramid Hotel in Tampa is a quite modest upstairs establishment in a somewhat less than fashionable district. This was the spring training home of Minoso and his Negro teammates Bob Boyd, Connie Johnson, and Earl Battey. Sport Magazine, August, 1954, p91.

Rob Neyer says:

It’s fairly safe to assume, though, that if Minoso had grown up in Georgia with pale skin rather than in Cuba with dark skin, he’d have reached the major leagues three or four years before he did. Let’s be conservative, and give Minoso four more seasons. He was good for approximately 175 hits per season, and 175 times four is 700 hits. Add 700 to 1,963, and you get 2,663 hits.
There are, to be sure, players with more than 2,663 hits who aren’t in the Hall of Fame. But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody with 2,663 hits and Minoso’s broad base of skills who hasn’t been elected or won’t be. Bill James rates Minoso as the 10th-greatest left fielder ever, and I think that’s just about right.

Some say Minoso was born in 1925.  It doesn't make a bit of difference. It would have meant three fewer potential seasons in the majors.  He didn't need the three years. Minoso languished for two years in the minors once Cleveland signed him in 1949. They didn't understand his style of baseball-speed, hustle, and potentially leading the majors with hit by pitches was not a white 'Yankee' thing.

In 1951 he played his first full season, and by all rights, should have been named Rookie of the Year. That cannot be fixed.  The special committee can fix Minoso's long overdue induction into the Hall of Fame. This fall, Minoso saw something he always dreamed about and never thought would happen in his lifetime-the White Sox winning a World Championship.

This committee can make sure Minoso lives to see his induction into the Hall of Fame. He is a man of great talent and character, who while overlooked during his prime, was among the best.

Members of the committee and their areas of expertise are:

Todd Bolton, Latin America
Greg Bond, 19th Century (Here at the University of Wisconsin!)
Adrian Burgos, Latin America
Dick Clark, Negro leagues 
Ray Doswell, overall knowledge
Leslie Heaphy, Women's History, Negro leagues 
Larry Hogan, overall knowledge
Neil Lanctot, Negro leagues eastern teams 
Larry Lester, Negro leagues 
Sammy Miller, Eastern and Western teams 
Jim Overmyer, Eastern teams and 19th century
Robert Peterson, overall knowledge

Lobbying for Minnie Minoso, One Voter at a Time in 2011

This Minoso post originally appeared February 12, 2006. Once again Minoso may be overlooked. I have followed the discussions and even Bob Costas misses the point. You cannot look at only his major league career. Minoso had a great run for the New York Cubans with a smashing World Series in 1947.

Doug Moe's column Friday  described my recent lunch with Greg Bond, a UW PhD candidate who has a vote in this month's special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame:

THE OTHER day at J.T. Whitney's restaurant and brew pub, former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin did a little lobbying.

This was nothing new for Soglin, of course. In his two long stints as mayor he often fought to get Madison a fair shake from some of the rubes in the Legislature, who often seemed reluctant to share state revenues with the city.

At this recent lunch, however, the stakes for Soglin were infinitely higher than merely ensuring Madison's financial stability.

This was about getting Minnie Minoso in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Soglin's table mates that day included UW-Madison cable TV expert Barry Orton, who edits Soglin's blog. A few recent blog entries have been devoted to Minnie Minoso and his deserving a spot in the Hall of Fame.

The third man at the table was a Madison resident who will actually have a say in whether or not Minoso makes the hall.

Later this month, in Tampa, Fla., Greg Bond will be one of 12 experts on African-American baseball players who will vote up or down on 39 Hall of Fame candidates from the old Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues baseball teams. Minoso is one of the 39. Players getting at least nine of the 12 votes will be officially enshrined into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

How Bond, who is in graduate school in American history at UW-Madison, became expert enough to sit on such a prestigious committee - the non-voting chairman is former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent - is an interesting tale.

At 33, Bond is the youngest member of the committee. He first fell under baseball's spell while growing up in Vero Beach, Fla. - the winter home of the Los Angeles Dodgers - and he first got interested in the old-time African-American players when he read David Zang's book, "Fleet Walker's Divided Heart: The Life of Baseball's First Black Major Leaguer."

Ask baseball fans who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and most everyone will name Jackie Robinson. In fact, it was Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, who in 1884 played 42 games for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association, which was then recognized as a major league.

Still, baseball - reflecting society - remained largely segregated and, by the 1890s, segregationists had carried the day. The Negro League Baseball Players Association Web site notes the following: "During the 1890s, most professional black players were limited to playing in exhibition games on 'colored' teams on the barnstorming circuit."

In 1920, Rube Foster organized the first black professional baseball league and Foster is known as the father of black baseball.

Greg Bond's interest lay in the Fleet Walker era - the more obscure black players from pre-1900. He wrote his UW-Madison master's thesis on them and, in doing his research, Bond corresponded with and got to know the top experts in the United States on black baseball. In time, Bond himself became a leading expert on the pre-1900 era. He is now working on his Ph.D.

Recently, the Hall of Fame received a grant of $250,000 from Major League Baseball to try to determine if any deserving Negro League or pre-Negro League ballplayers missed being inducted when the hall's Veterans Committee began considering them for induction in the 1970s (the great Josh Gibson, for instance, was inducted in 1972).

A screening committee settled on 39 potential candidates, one of whom is Minnie Minoso, who had a great career in both the Negro Leagues and later with the Chicago White Sox. Paul Soglin, as mentioned, believes passionately that Minoso should be in the hall. He hit for power, stole bases and was a gifted outfielder.

On his blog, Soglin writes poignantly of first seeing Minoso play at Comiskey Park in 1952. Soglin was just a kid but knew he was witnessing greatness.

Soglin continued: "The closest I ever got to Minoso was in 1954. The Chicago White Sox stayed at the Piccadilly Hotel, just two blocks from my home. Once the season started, every day after school we headed up to the Piccadilly about 3:30 p.m. The White Sox would be returning from the day game by 4 p.m. Every White Sox player stayed at the Piccadilly except for two. Jack Harshmann had his entire family with him and lived in an apartment about a mile away.

"Minoso drove up to the hotel in his dark green Cadillac convertible; it was a '54 El Dorado. He dropped off the first of the great Venezuelan shortstops, Chico Carrasquel, and then headed further south. Word was that he lived somewhere near 63rd Street.

"Minoso was black. He was the first black Cuban to play in the major leagues. He was the first black Latin player.

"From 1954 until 1960, my last summer hanging around the hotel, I never saw a black, man or woman, ballplayer or not, go through the front doors of the Piccadilly Hotel."

Around the holidays, Barry Orton was on the Internet when he learned that one of the 12 people who will meet Feb. 25 in Tampa was a Ph.D. candidate at UW-Madison. The meeting at Whitney's was arranged. During lunch, Soglin produced and passed around Minoso's 1954 White Sox contract. Soglin had bought it on eBay.

"Did he press you to vote for Minoso?" Bond was asked recently.

"He did a little advocating," Bond recalled.

Greg Bond will decide how to vote for himself, of course. He's looking forward to his weekend in Tampa. There will be discussions Saturday and Sunday and finally a vote. A press conference is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 27 with Fay Vincent presiding, where the results will be announced. Most likely, Paul Soglin will have never been more nervous about an election - even one of his own.

I hate to disagree with my good friend Doug, but the 2004 election made me much more nervous than any of my races: after four years of George W, I feared the worst was yet to come from an administration that would never have to face the voters again...

WMC, the Wisconsin Budget, and the Absence of Truth: Part I

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), always quick to misstate the facts, pronounced earlier this week that:

Said another way — the budget proposes a 50 percent increase in taxes on retirees’ IRAs and 401(k)s.

This was in commentary posted by WMC President James S. Haney, Insight: Wisconsin at the Crossroads.

It  came at the conclusion of a larger flawed misrepresentation about the proposed changes in capital gains taxes.

I spoke who three different experts on taxation and retirement accounts. They all had difficulty understanding the WMC conclusion.

The first problem was interpreting the claim.

Is the allegation based on a complete analysis of the entire budget, or is it a conclusion based on the WMC accusations about the impact of the modifications to the way capital gains are taxed? 

In any case it is nonsense.

It is more alarmist chatter from people who are bright and know better and have no use for a rational discussion about the budget.

Earnings within a 401(k) or a conventional IRA are not taxed within the qualified plan. When the retiree withdraws the funds, pursuant to the IRS and Wisconsin tax regulations, the income is taxed in the same manner regardless of how it was earned. It makes no difference if it was a capital gain, or from dividends, or interest.

WMC must be held accountable for these misleading claims. If there was ever evidence in these difficult times that we need vigilant journalism, this is it.

WMC needs to provide proof that the claim is true - that the modifications in the capital gains taxation propose a 50% increase in taxes on retirees' IRAs and 401(k)s.

That is a generalization. WMC did not say 'some,' nor did they say 'one elderly man living in a cave outside of Verona.'

Happy Birthday Minnie Minoso - But No Hall of Fame

Yesterday was either the 83rd or 86th birthday of Minnie Minoso. Writing at Baseball Analysts, Rich Lederer tells us:

                                    Happy Birthday, Minnie, No Matter Your Age

 

Depending on the source, Minnie Miñoso either turns 83 or 86 years old today.

Miñoso's actual age may or may not matter at this point. What's most important is that he's alive and apparently doing well. However, as it relates to his baseball career, Miñoso's age is relevant. You see, it could be the difference as to whether he deserves to be elected to the Hall of Fame or not. At worst, he is a borderline candidate. At best, he should have been voted in long ago....

The entire is piece is worth reading, so once again, here is the link.

I wrote, three years ago, November 28, 2005, how I recalled seeing my hero after ball games at the Piccadilly Hotel: Minnie Minoso Considered for Hall of Fame

After the day games, Minoso drove up to the hotel in his dark green Cadillac convertible (I think it was a '54 El Dorado). He dropped off the first of the great Venezuelan shortstops, Chico Carrasquel and then headed further south.  Word was that he lived somewhere near 63rd Street.

A few years ago, I found an old Sport Magazine, August 1954. There just as I remembered it, was Minnie' and his Cadillac; there was no Chico getting out of the passenger's side:

 

  

From the Sport Magazine article:

(He) bought an olive green Cadillac convertible with white sidewalls and wire spokes. It was the talk of the White Sox camp in the spring...From the rear-view mirror dangled a pair of baby shoes from his two-and-a-half-year-old son. The instrument panel has more gadgets than a DC-8.

The Pyramid Hotel in Tampa is a quiet modest upstairs establishment in a somewhat less than fashionable district. This was the spring training home of Minoso and his Negro teammates, Bob Boyd, Connie Johnson, and Earl Battey.

 

Pyramid Hotel Tampa

A black and white photo taken in Tampa on May 3 in the mid 1900s showing the front of the Pyramid Hotel.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Special Collections Department, University of South Florida

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Baseball Hall of Fame Shuts Out Worthy Veterans

The Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame elected nobody for the third straight year time. (thanks Mike)  Not Gil Hodges, not Minnie Minoso, not Jim Kaat, not Tony Oliva, not Roger Maris and not Maury Wills,  Not even Ron Santo, who came closest, but fell 5 votes short.

We've ranted about this many times before.

In brief:  Feh.

- Barry Orton

Baseball Writers Disgrace Hall of Fame

On January 9. 2007 the ballots cast for the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America were tabulated. It was no surprise that Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected. It was no surprise that neither Mark McGwire nor Harold Baines received enough votes.

Then  there is the matter of Dante Bichette receiving three votes and Albert 'Joey' Belle receiving 19 votes. Obviously someone, actually 22 someones were mistakenly given ballots. Now do not get me wrong. Bichette was a player who loved the game, a fan's player who hit 40 home runs one year and 274 in his career. He was fun to watch and he played with zest. He is just not a Hall of Famer.

Belle was a jerk. He had power and he finished with a .295 lifetime batting average. But he is not a Hall of Famer.

But this is not about the players; it is about the baseball writers who voted for these guys. Giving them a ballot is like letting a child run with scissors, letting George Bush run a war, or putting Ben Masel in charge of the Mifflin Street Block Party.

Come to think about it, Ben running the block party is not such a bad idea.

Earlier this week Dave Zweifel at The Capital Times came to the same conclusion, though he had a different perspective. Writers off base on baseball steroids :

And then there was that dope from the Daily Southtown, a suburban Chicago paper, who refused to vote for anyone - Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn included - because he wasn't sure whether they, too, might have been on steroids. Please spare me. Steroids have proven to be destructive to the human body; that's why we don't want kids taking them. If ironman Ripken set his longevity record while on steroids, he would be a medical miracle. The Southtown baseball writer ought to have his Baseball Writers Association of America credentials revoked for stupidity.

Minoso and O'Neil: A Plea For Justice

I suppose it is no coincidence that both stories appeared on Friday:

Negro Leagues great Buck O'Neil takes turn for the worse

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Negro leagues great Buck O'Neil took a turn for the worse late Thursday but was resting comfortably in a Kansas City hospital Friday, friends said.

The 94-year-old O'Neil was admitted to the hospital Sept. 17 with extreme fatigue. O'Neil, one of the driving forces in the creation of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, has lost his voice and can only whisper...

...A former Negro leagues batting champion and player-manager with the Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil holds many distinctions in his long career. In February, he fell one vote short of induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Hodges, Santo head Veterans Committee ballot

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- Gil Hodges, Ron Santo, Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat are among the 27 players on next year's Veterans Committee ballot for the Hall of Fame announced Thursday...

...No one received the required 75 percent in the first two votes by the new Veterans Committee, in 2003 and 2005. In the last vote, Hodges and Santo received 65 percent, falling eight votes shy.

Holdovers also include Dick Allen, Bobby Bonds, Ken Boyer, Rocky Colavito, Wes Ferrell, Curt Flood, Joe Gordon, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, Roger Maris, Marty Marion, Carl Mays, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson, Don Newcombe, Vada Pinson, Luis Tiant, Joe Torre and Maury Wills...

Minoso and Buck O'Neil, by every imaginable standard, deserve election.  O'Neil for his contributions as a Negro League player and the 'tweener,' Minoso, for all of his contributions.

No Minoso

Minnie wasn't good enough. No, I think his credentials are well established. He was the best left fielder in both leagues during the 1950's after Stan Musial and Ted Williams, and the 9th or 10th best of all time.

He was not a true Negro Leaguer: Maybe.  There is no question that his split tenure between the Negro Leagues and MLB hurts his case.  As a 'tweener' he does not have the career statistics in either league.  More important there are no decent records of his two significant seasons with the New York Cubans.  Hopefully, one day, someone will do the research and produce those stats.

Minoso, a Cuban, had no ethnic or racial base. Perhaps some truth here. While Chicago blacks fully embraced Minnie, as a Cuban, he never received the depth of support nationally as did Jackie Robinson.  It took Roberto Clemente to make North Americans understand what it was like to be Black and Hispanic and play major league baseball. (See Dave Maraniss' new book, Clemente : The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero ).

Minoso also had no national base. Minoso was hurt by the poor relations between the U.S. and his native Cuba.  There was no way of building support in his homeland.  As Fidel Castro said, "While Minnie Minoso is not a friend of the revolution, he will always be welcome in Cuba. He will always be a hero to the Cuban people."  Such sentiments never reached the United States.

One more thing, as long as we're pleading for justice from the Hall of Fame: Buck O'Neil should be elected now by any means necessary.  Change the rules; declare an emergency; whatever. Do it now, before it's too late.

No Minoso

I finally can sit down and write this post.  Frankly, I was surprised as to how badly I felt hearing that Minnie Minoso was not one of the seventeen Negro League stars elected to the Hall of Fame. I can only imagine what the great player and his family felt.

                                 Minoso fails to make Hall of Fame

Former White Sox Minnie Minoso didn't receive enough votes from a 12-member committee that considered 39 players from the Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues eras for induction into baseball's Hall of Fame.

"I know that baseball fans have me in their own Hall of Fame – the one in their hearts," said Minoso in a statement. "That matters more to me than any official recognition. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and I am truly honored to be considered. I've given my life to baseball, and the game has given me so much. That's what matters the most to me."

Well said, Minnie.

Now there is the nagging question, "Why?'  Ron Rapoport, writing in the Chicago Sun times, says:

Negro League committee has some explaining to do

...As unhappy as many Chicagoans are about Minnie Minoso's failure to win election, people in Kansas City are outraged that Buck O'Neil didn't make it. As a player, manager, scout and coach -- and as a tireless promoter of Negro Leagues history and its museum in Kansas City -- O'Neil was widely expected to be a shoo-in. He failed by one vote. Doesn't O'Neil, and the rest of us, have a right to know why?

...One thing nobody can accuse this new committee of, I suppose, is pandering to public taste. O'Neil is 94 and Minoso is 84. We can only imagine the scene at Cooperstown next August as they gave their acceptance speeches. It would have been one of the Hall's greatest moments, and I, for one, would like to hear the committee tell us why we won't be seeing it.

I doubt that we will ever know why, but the least I can do is wonder out loud.

Minnie wasn't good enough. No, I think his credentials are well established. He was the best left fielder in both leagues during the 1950's after Stan Musial and Ted Williams, and the 9th or 10th best of all time.

He was not a true Negro Leaguer: Maybe.  There is no question that his split tenure between the Negro Leagues and MLB hurts his case.  As a 'tweener' he does not have the career statistics in either league.  More important there are no decent records of his two significant seasons with the New York Cubans.  Hopefully, one day, someone will do the research and produce those stats.

Minoso, a Cuban, had no ethnic or racial base. Perhaps some truth here. While Chicago blacks fully embraced Minnie, as a Cuban, he never received the depth of support nationally as did Jackie Robinson.  It took Roberto Clemente to make North Americans understand what it was like to be Black and Hispanic and play major league baseball. (See Dave Maraniss' new book, Clemente : The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero ).

Minoso also had no national base. Minoso was hurt by the poor relations between the U.S. and his native Cuba.  There was no way of building support in his homeland.  As Fidel Castro said, "While Minnie Minoso is not a friend of the revolution, he will always be welcome in Cuba. He will always be a hero to the Cuban people."  Such sentiments never reached the United States.

Minoso pinch hit in 1976 and 1980.  Over 50 years of age, as part of a typical Bill Veeck stunt, Minoso was activated to pinch hit in two additional decades the 1970's and the 1980's. I never paid much attention to that until now.  Last month I read a post from a fan who never saw Minnie play.  His recollection of Minnie was those publicity stunts; the fan had no knowledge of Minnie's skills. I have to wonder when it was all said and done, if too many members of the committee felt that Minoso had sullied his career. Funny thing is, the Hall of Fame finally admitted Veeck - after his death.

Minnie Minoso-One More Time

Judie Kleinmaier at The Capital Times was nice enough to forward this Sports Illustrated article,  Nothing Minor About Minnie article:

Miñoso deserves more recognition as player, pioneer...Yet there is another goodwill ambassador who should be enshrined, a man who shared O'Neil's boundless sense of enjoyment and hope for the game. The difference is that this man, Saturnino Orestes Armas Arrieta Miñoso -- more commonly known as "Minnie" -- is remembered primarily for his clownish pinch-hitting stunts in 1976 and 1981, which he did as much to qualify for a pension as for the giggles.

I am well aware of the pinch hinting. As someone who saw him play, it never even merited a footnote.  As Alex Belth so poignantly notes:

...On April 30, 1951, Miñoso was shipped to the White Sox as part of a seven-player deal. His debut with the new club was a doozy. On May 1, against the defending champion New York Yankees, Miñoso became the first black man to play major league baseball for either Chicago club -- two years before Ernie Banks' debut with the Cubs. Miñoso blasted a long home run off Vic Raschi in his first at-bat. But Miñoso's historic day would be overshadowed. In the sixth inning another rookie, Mickey Mantle, also hit his first big league homer, and the Yankees went on to win the game.

"This knack for inadvertently playing second fiddle on the baseball diamond," notes Latin baseball scholar Peter Bjarkman, "would somehow become something of a hallmark of Miñoso's otherwise brilliant big league career."

This held true after Miñoso's brilliant rookie season, when sportswriters awarded the Rookie of the Year to New York's Gil McDougald. McDougald benefited from being white and playing for the Yankees (who would win another World Series that fall), but a look at the numbers shows that Miñoso was the superior player. The Sporting News picked Miñoso as its top rookie, and oddly enough, the baseball writers themselves had him fourth in their MVP voting -- while McDougald was a distant ninth...

...Miñoso was as much an all-out hustler as Pete Rose, and had to put up with considerably more crap. Just how many major league years did Miñoso lose to racism? Some records suggest he was 25 in 1951, others say he was 28. If Miñoso was 28, then what he was able to accomplish in his 30s was truly great. Some observers think Miñoso lost as many as five years to racism, but even if it was only two or three seasons, it was enough to skew his overall achievement in the majors.

When taken as a whole, Miñoso's playing career in the Negro Leagues, minors and big leagues (not to mention the winter leagues -- Miñoso continued to play in Mexico for another nine years after he left the majors) merits recognition. How he should be evaluated is a question of historical context. While Jackie Robinson can be regarded with awe on numbers alone, there is a less-heralded second tier of pioneers, Doby and Miñoso included, whose career numbers are better understood when held alongside the cultural world they played in. If Doby is in the Hall of Fame, why isn't Miñoso?

As I finished Belth's article, I wondered: Are the accomplishments of a great athlete, a man who loved the game, one of the most enthusiastic players of all time to be dwarfed by a minor moment of levity that he and one the most gifted owners, Bill Veeck, brought to baseball?  No one diminished Veeck's career by his playing Eddie Gadel in St. Louis or Minoso when he was pushing 60 years of age.

Then again Veeck is white.  Veeck is in the Hall of Fame. One thing of which I am certain.  If Bill Veeck was alive today he would insist that Hall of Fame take both of them, or neither of them.

Moe, Minoso, and Fay Vincent

So Doug Moe wrote the column Going to bat for Minnie Minoso referring to my Minnie Minoso and the Hall of Fame.

1.  Then Doug gets an email from Fay Vincent!

Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 7:18 AM
To: Doug Moe
Subject: Re: Doug Moe: Going to bat for Minnie Minoso

            Mr. Moe-   

                    I very much enjoyed your column on Minnie and Greg Bond and the committee I am chairing. My question--are you the Doug Moe who went to Williams College in the class of '59?  Perhaps you and my old pal are not the same. In any event I am delighted to have had a chance to see your fine column. Thank you for it. Fay Vincent

2.  Doug replies to Mr. Vincent and sends me the following:

Nice to have an elite readership....I did have to tell Mr. Vincent I was only 3 years old in 1959...

3.  And I wrote back to Doug:

Doug:  The column is great, but Eddie Ben Elson you are not.  Eddie would have written back to him, gotten some passes to a few games and sat with Vincent at the All Star game

Hey, it really was a nice column and now we just sit back and wait.

Paul