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Ted Williams got the ball rolling with his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1966 by giving a public nod to Negro League players who would have been his contemporaries if not for the culture of segregation. Author Robert Peterson nudged the rich history of the Negro Leagues into the mainstream consciousness with his 1970 book, “Only The Ball Was White.” A special committee on the Negro Leagues elected nine new Hall of Famers from 1971-77; the Veterans Committee added nine more from 1981-2001.
It was a start. But there were many other African-American and Latino players, managers and executives from the Negro Leagues Era (1920-60) and earlier whose contributions warranted further consideration for the Hall of Fame. In 2000, Major League Baseball gave a $250,000 grant to commission an all-encompassing academic study of the issue. The result of that five-year study is a special election, which will be held in Tampa on Feb. 27 to determine who from a field of 39 candidates will join Bruce Sutter in the Hall of Fame Class of 2006. It's the first of its kind, and it could be the final opportunity for Hall of Fame enshrinement for those who were forced by prejudice to find an alternative path to immortality. [Click the links on the right for bios and audio commentary from Lawrence D. Hogan, author of the book "Shades Of Glory".] |