Not Speaking Ill of the Dead

 Former Negro Leagues’ and MLB outfielder Monte Irvin died yesterday at the age of 96.  What struck me were his career stats of 99 homerun, 443 rbi’s and a .293 batting average, which helped earn Irvin election to the Hall of Fame in 1973.

Now compare those numbers to Minnie Minoso’s from the age of 30 on—118 homers and 595 rbi’s.  The stats come from baseballreference.com, which puts Minoso’s birth date at November 1925 while Wikipedia gives it as November 1922.  So, those numbers could be from the age of 33, not 30.  (Maybe the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations will allow researchers to settle this question once and for all.)  Either way, Minoso had a career batting average of .298 to Irvin’s .293.  I’m sorry, if one goes into the Hall of Fame, the other has to as well.  If anything, Minoso should have gone in first.