November 21, 2005
Revisiting History
The Baseball Hall of Fame arrived at a ballot designed to elect Negro League and pre-Negro League players to the Hall of Fame. Unlike previous elections, this will be conducted by a panel of historical experts. The twelve people will vote yes or no on each candidate. If a candidate receives nine votes, he is in.
It seems the Hall wants to rectify past slights due to the lack of knowledge in this realm of the old veterans committee. This seems like a decent way of bringing closure to this issue, but such a system might have worked better 50 years ago when the experts were alive who actually saw many of these people play.
Update: William Li has a proposal to get sports reporters involved in documententing what fans saw in the Negro Leagues before those fans are gone.
I'm happy that this vote is happening, but I think journalists can do more about it, both to expand interest of the players themselves and to document accounts of the Negro Leagues.
I've put up a draft proposal at the following site -
http://rememberblackbaseball.blogspot.com/
I'd like to get people's opinions on the feasibility and/or potential of such a proposal, as well as suggestions about how to get the word out if it is in fact a good plan.
We have many interviews and stories from players, but I haven't seen as many discussions with fans, who are participants in a different way and, I believe, have unique experiences to share.
Buck O'Neil should be in the HOF. A great ambassador for the game.
