They gathered in a conference room in Florida, a 12-person committee that would be both judge and jury. The weight of their task — considering the Hall of Fame worthiness of 39 Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues players, managers, and executives — was perhaps greater than any they had carried in their careers. “They had a speaker in the middle of the table, and Frank Robinson was brought on to talk to us,” said Leslie Heaphy, a professor of history at Kent State University, the founding editor of the Black Ball journal, and the only woman appointed to the Hall’s Special Committee on African-American Baseball. “I had both those thoughts at the same time.”It was 15 years ago that the Special Committee on African-American Baseball was able to right a few of baseball’s wrongs by electing 17 Hall of Famers from the Negro leagues and the preceding era of Black baseball. Now, as the Hall of Fame readies for Wednesday’s induction ceremony, in which Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller will be enshrined, and as Major League Baseball continues its process of acknowledging that the Negro leagues were major leagues, it is notable that no players from those leagues have been elected since.

Source: International New York Times September 06, 2021 21:00 UTC