Hall of Fame Observations, Part II

Since November, Joe Posnanski of The Athletic has been doing a series on 100 players who should be in the Hall of Fame. Posnanski ended Tuesday with his number-one choice, a fellow by the name of Minnie Minoso. Posnanski wrote, “Every day that he [Minoso] is not in the Hall of Fame is a day that the Hall of Fame itself is diminished.” Amen to that. So, what’s kept Minoso out of Cooperstown all these years? Let’s start with a reason Posnanski can barely allude to: Chicago ain’t New York. Minoso had a great rookie year in 1951, batting .326 with 112 runs scored and 76 RBIs; he also led the AL in triples and stolen bases. Pretty good but not good enough to win Rookie of the Year honors. Those went to Yankees’ infielder Gil McDougald, who hit .306 with 72 runs scored and 63 RBIs. This is what Posnanski writes: “It remains unclear how Minoso lost the Rookie of the Year award to Gil McDougald in 1951.” It remains unclear only to those blind to the obvious, Joe. Posnanski also mentions that Bill Veeck giving Minoso a handful of at-bats in 1976 at the age of 50 and again in 1980 amounted to a “stunt,” which sounds about right. But there has to be something more to explain it, and this is where WAR comes in, yet again. Posnanski mentions all the intangibles that equations fail to capture. Minoso was both the first Black MLB ballplayer in Chicago and the first Black Latin major leaguer. Consider that Minoso had to deal with everything Black American ballplayers confronted in the 1940s and ’50s plus the added burden of being seen as “foreign,” or Black and foreign. Not all fans loved Minoso the way South Siders did. (I saw Minoso at a Sox fan convention ca. 2011, and he was treated with what might be best called enthusiastic reverence. He also cut a fine figure in his three-piece suit.) I suspect that held for players and coaches, even those who shared a dugout with him. Also consider that Minoso didn’t debut until age 25 (or 28, it’s unclear), which makes those 1963 career hits, 1136 runs scored and 1023 RBIs all the more impressive. Another 79 hits from his Negro Leagues’ stint would give Minoso a .2987 BA. We round up, yes? Baseballreference.com gives Minoso a 50.2 WAR. That feels more than a tad low, I’d say. But what do I know compared to all those analytic types out there?