Cooperstown Confidential (23 page)

Appendix 2: Hall of Fame Members

† Percentage unavailable for players selected by the Veterans Committee prior to 2001.

‡ Percentage unavailable for players selected by the Negro Leagues Committee or committee on African-American Baseball.

Appendix 3: The Honor Rolls of Baseball

WRITERS:

Walter Barnes (Boston)

Tim Murnane (Boston)

Harry Cross (New York)

William Hanna (New York)

Sid Mercer (New York)

Bill Slocum (New York)

George Tidden (New York)

Joe Vila (New York)

Frank Hough (Philadelphia)

Frank Richter (Philadelphia)

Irving Sanborn (Chicago)

John B. Sheridan (St. Louis)

UMPIRES:

Bill Klem
*

Tommy Connolly
*

Bill Dinneen

Billy Evans
*

John Gaffney

Thomas Lynch

Tim Hurst

John Kelly

Silk O’Loughlin

Jack Sheridan

Bob Emslie

MANAGERS:

Ned Hanlon
*

Bill Carrigan

John M. Ward
*

Miller Huggins
*

Frank Selee
*

EXECUTIVES:

Ed Barrow
*

Bob Quinn

Ernest S. Barnard

John Bruce

John T. Brush

Barney Dreyfuss

Charles H. Ebbets

August Herrmann

John A. Heydler

Arthur Soden

Nicholas Young

*Now in Hall of Fame

Notes

22
The village itself had been founded about 1800:
Louis C. Jones,
Cooperstown
.

23
“that swine and treacherous sneak”:
The material on the Clark family is based largely on Nicholas Fox Weber’s
The Clarks of
Cooperstown
. Jane Forbes Clark made it clear that she does not hold the book in high regard. As an antidote, she sent me
Cooper s-
town
by Louis C. Jones, originally published by the Otsego County Historical Society. Unsurprisingly, the book contains a highly sanitized view of the Clarks and their beneficence.

23
Sterling despised Franklin Roose velt:
Weber,
Clarks of Coopers-
town
, p 183.

24
“a threat to our very way of government”:
Ibid., p. 205, quoting Jules Archer’s book,
The Plot to Seize the White House
(Hawthorne Books, 1973), pp. 213–16.

26
Despite its official-sounding name, the commission:
The material on this dispute and the Mills Commission is based on: James A. Vlasich,
A Legend for the Legendary: The Origin of the Baseball
Hall of Fame
; Jim Reisler,
A Great Day in Cooperstown
; Ken Smith,
Baseball Hall of Fame
; and James Mallinson,
A.G. Mills
(SABR, The Biography Project, undated).

30
It was inspired by a recent visit to the Hall of Fame for Great
Americans:
Bill James,
What ever Happened to the Hall of
Fame?
p. 5.

34
“Cooperstown . . . now a bustling little village and a shrine”:
Smith,
Baseball’s Hall of Fame
.

35
“most fitting that the history”:
Quoted in Vlasich,
Legend for
the Legendary
, p. 175.

35
“They started something here”:
Smith,
Baseball’s Hall of
Fame
, p. 19.

36
“Each of the major league teams had sent two representatives”:
Smith,
Baseball’s Hall of Fame
, pp. 21–22.

40
Irish players dominated the nineteenth-century game:
John Mooney, “Honoring the Irish,”
Irish Examiner
, March 7, 2007.

43
“George Kelly was a good ballplayer”:
Bill James,
The New Bill
James Historical Baseball Abstract
(Free Press, 2001), p. 458.

51
“[I] lashed away until the man was faceless”:
Al Stump,
Cobb:
The Life and Times of the Meanest Man Who Ever Played
Baseball
(Algonquin, 1994) p. 212.

51
Baseball historian Doug Roberts combed through:
Doug Roberts,
The National Pastime, Ty Cobb Did Not Commit
Murder
(SABR, 1996), pp. 25–28.

52
Ban Johnson, the president of the American League, suspended
Cobb:
Charles Alexander,
Ty Cobb
, pp. 105–7.

52
“When a spectator calls me a half nigger”: Detroit Free
Press
, May 16, 1912, p. 10.

53
“These players have not been, nor are they now, found
guilty”:
Quoted in Alexander,
Ty Cobb
, p. 194.

54
“Babe Ruth is not only a great athlete”:
Quoted in Montville,
The Big Bam,
pp. 157–58.

56
Four years later, Anson threatened to cancel a White Stockings
exhibition game:
Brian Wilson, “Unfortunate Situation: Color Line Takes Stove Out of Big Leagues,” MLB.com, http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/mlb_negro_leagues_profile.jsp?player=stovey_george.

58
“When I broke in . . . the only advice [the sports editor] gave
me”:
Quoted in Jerome Holtzman,
No Cheering in the Press
Box
, p. 166.

58-59
“When athletes are no longer heroes to you anymore”:
Quoted in Jerome Holtzman,
No Cheering in the Press Box
, p. 109.

59
He actually brokered at least one of Ruth’s salary negotiations:
Jerome Holtzman,
No Cheering in the Press Box
.

59
“It’s one of the great boasts of all journalists”:
Jerome Holtzman,
No Cheering in the Press Box
, p. 276.

62
“I won’t say I haven’t done some foolish things in my life”:
“Another Shadow,”
Time
, March 9, 1970.

63
In 1946, the new commissioner of baseball, Happy Chandler,
confronted Durocher:
Daniel E. Ginsburg,
The Fix Is In
, pp. 213–27.

63
“a powerful force for undermining the moral and spiritual training”:
Ginsburg,
The Fix Is In
, p. 225.

64
“I got a special request, an unusual request”:
Hank Greenberg with Ira Berkow,
The Story of My Life
, pp. 140–41.

65
“Joe let those thousands and tens of thousands pile up”:
Richard Ben Cramer,
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life
(Simon and Schus-ter Paperback, 2001), pp. 246–47.

88
“Gentlemen,” he told them, “we have the only legal monopoly”:
Heylar,
Lords of the Realm
, p. 268.

96
“Just about every Hall of Famer in baseball is hanging on these
walls”:
Quoted in Pete Rose,
My Prison Without Bars
, p. 2.

97
“Regardless of the verdict of juries”:
Jonathan Fraser Light,
The
Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball
, p. 98.

110
“thrilled that we now have the opportunity”:
Quoted in Ken Daley, “Bonds Baseball to Be Branded with Asterisk,”
New York
Times
, September 26, 2007.

110
“I will never be in the Hall of Fame. Never.”:
Mike Fitzpatrick, “Bonds: Asterisk Would Force Boycott of Hall of Fame,” Associated Press, November 2, 2007.

112
they were both referred to “publicly and frequently as ‘nigger’ ”:
Hank Aaron,
I Had a Hammer
, pp. 310–13.

112
As a boy at St. Mary’s Orphanage in Baltimore:
Robert W. Creamer,
Babe
, p. 38.

112
“I never have slept under the same roof”:
Quoted in Fred Leib,
Baseball as I Have Known It
, p. 186.

112
“Even players in the Negro Leagues”:
Robert W. Creamer,
Babe
, p. 185.

113
“When I see the footage of Aaron’s 715th home run”:
Stephen Cannella, “My Sportsman: Hank Aaron,” SI.com, November 21, 2007, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/magazine/specials/sportsman/2007/11/20/cannella.aaron/.

114
Chandler: (Claps hands and calls) Robbie-eee! Robbiee!:
As reported in Jules Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, p. 92.

115
“The baseball writers at that time were very conservative”:
Quoted in Jerome Holtzman,
No Cheering in the Press Box
, p. 316.

115
“I’m telling you as a friend”:
Quoted in Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett,
I Never Had it Made
(HarperPerennial, 2003), p. 96.

116
The
Sporting News
denounced him for this:
Tygiel,
Baseball’s
Great Experiment
, p. 323.

119
“Don’t come back again, nigger.”:
Quoted in Craig R. Wright, “Another View of Dick Allen,”
Baseball Research Journal
24 (1995): 2–14.

123
“First ballot, second ballot, whatever”:
“Talkin’ Beisbol: Sheffield Speaks Out,” MLB.com, June 8, 2007,
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070607&content_id=2011367&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
.

127
Twenty-five years ago, almost a third of major-league players:
Richard Lapchick,
The 2008 Racial and Gender Report Card:
Major League Baseball
(Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, 2008).

127
“[but] I’m going to be tremendously more pleased and more
proud”:
John Helyar, “Robinson Would Have Mixed View of Today’s Game,” ESPN.com, April 9, 2007, http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/jackie/news/story?id=2828584.

129
“Until now, there has been one failing”:
Bill Francis/National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, “De cades Later, Negro Leaguers Got Their Due,” March 28, 2008, http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?content_id=6649&vkey=hof_news&ymd=20080325.

130
“I was just as good as the white boys”:
Quoted in James,
Whatever
Happened to the Hall of Fame?
, p. 187.

131
“There are now in the Hall of Fame sixty-eight players”:
Robert Peterson,
Only the Ball Was White
, p. 254.

131
“The simultaneous election of a large number of Negro League
players”:
Bill James, e-mail message to author, January 19, 2008.

133
“It is beyond my understanding how anyone can insinuate”:
Dave Egan,
Boston Daily Record
, April 16, 1945 (cited in Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, p. 43).

135
Major League Baseball put out a press release:
“
O’Neil Must
Wait Longer for Hall Call
” MLB.com, February 27, 2006, http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060227&content_id=1324873&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

135
“I don’t think this is necessarily trying to right a wrong”:
Interview with
Jane Forbes Clark
,
Joe Morgan
,
Dale Petroskey
, and
Bud
Selig
, ASAP Sports, October 24, 2007, http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=46375.

142
“I’d be lying if I told you that as a black man in baseball”:
Quoted in Marvin Miller,
A Whole Different Ballgame
, p. 186.

153
Baseball first came to Latin America in 1866:
Michael M. Olek-sak and Mary Adams Oleksak,
Beisbol: Latin Americans and the
Grand Old Game
(Masters Press, 1996).

154
“Minnie Minoso is to Latin players”:
Quoted in Tim Wendel,
The
New Face of Baseball
, p. 11.

157
the best estimate is that no more than 3 percent are Hispanic:
Based on a survey by SABR member Luca Marzorati, July 2008.

158
“What a joke. How about Mark McGwire?”
Jose Canseco,
Juiced
, pp. 88–90.

158
“They were like, ‘You never see any of the players bring this thing
to the States?’ ”:
Associated Press, “Guillen Says MLB Drug Probe Targeting Latinos,” June 7, 2007, http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/19080493/.

158
“We know if we don’t agree [with managers]”:
MLB.com, “Talkin’ Beisbol.”

160
“We want to explore the growing Latino influence in the game”:
Jim Molony, “Baseball! Beisbol! Debuts in Houston,” MLB.com, April 21, 2006, http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060421&content_id=1411344&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

164
“For more than a de cade, there has been widespread illegal use
of anabolic ste roids”:
George L. Mitchell,
Mitchell Report
.