COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The National Baseball Hall of Fame added six new members on Sunday, the result of two separate historical committee elections.
Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and Tony Oliva were all elected by the Golden Days Era Committee, which considered candidates whose primary contributions took place from 1950-69.
From the Early Baseball Era ballot, which voted on candidates whose primary contributions took place before 1950, Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil earned the nod.
Hodges, who starred for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers “Boys of Summer” teams of the 1940s and 50s, was an eight-time all-star and two-time World Series champion as a player. He achieved further fame as a manager, leading the “Miracle” New York Mets to an upset World Series win over the Baltimore Orioles in 1969. A fatal heart attack cut both his managerial career and life short in spring training 1972.
Kaat, 83, a durable left-handed starting pitcher, won 283 games and a then-record 16 Gold Glove awards in a 25-year career that spanned the presidential administrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Kaat spent 15 seasons with the Minnesota Twins franchise, and won a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982. Following his retirement as a player, he began a lengthy career as a broadcaster.
Kaat’s longtime teammate in Minnesota, Oliva, 83, was named to eight-straight American League all-star teams from 1964-71. The Cuban outfielder won the 1964 A.L. Rookie of the Year, and led the league in hits five times and won three batting titles.
Miñoso began his professional career with the New York Cubans of the Negro National League in 1946. After making his American League debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1949, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1951, where he would make his mark as one of the premier players in the sport. A nine-time MLB all-star, Miñoso became one of only three players to appear in the major leagues in five decades, due to brief appearances with the White Sox in 1976 and 1980, when he was in his 50s. He died in 2015.
O’Neil played first base for the Kansas City Monarchs beginning in 1938, and would be named to East-West All-Star games in 1942 and 1943. Named club manager in 1948, he would hold the post until after the 1955 season, when he left to join the Chicago Cubs as a scout. It was in Chicago that O’Neil became the first Black coach in the majors in 1962. However, he may best be known to modern fans for his role as an ambassador for the Negro leagues. He helped to found the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, made appearances in Ken Burns’ “Baseball” documentary series, and advocated for the election of Black baseball stars for decades as a member of the Hall’s Veterans’ Committee. He died in 2006, months after he missed election in the Hall’s last voting cycle that considered Negro league candidates.
Fowler, who grew up in Cooperstown, is regarded by historians as the first Black professional baseball player. The pitcher and second baseman played for multiple clubs from the 1870s to 1890s, including the Page Fence Giants, which he helped form, and the Cuban Giants. He died in 1913.
To earn election, candidates needed to receive 75% of the vote from the 16-member voting committees.
Fowler and O’Neil were chosen among the finalists on the Early Baseball Era ballot, which included seven players from the pre-Negro leagues and Negro leagues: John Donaldson, Fowler, Vic Harris, Grant “Home Run” Johnson, O’Neil, “Cannonball” Dick Redding and George Scales, and three stars from the National League/American League: Bill Dahlen, Lefty O’Doul and Allie Reynolds. Harris finished closest to election, with 10 of the necessary 12 votes needed to earn enshrinement.
Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Hodges, Kaat, Roger Maris, Miñoso, Danny Murtaugh, Oliva, Billy Pierce and Maury Wills were all up for consideration on the Golden Days Era ballot. Allen, who died in December, fell one vote shy of election.
The six honorees will officially be inducted on July 24, 2022. Joining them would be any possible electees from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, of which the results will be announced on Jan. 25. Among the 30 candidates the BBWAA will consider include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa, all in their 10th and final year of eligibility, other top returning candidates Scott Rolen, Omar Vizquel and Billy Wagner, and several newcomers, including Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Jimmy Rollins.
