Negro Leaguers In The Hall

It's a bit disappointing to see that the Washington Post only has a watered-down AP article on the Negro League candidates inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday. And while it's certainly notable that the first woman makes it into the Hall, the article focuses mostly on that: "Here are five paragraphs about her, and oh yeah, some other guys got in, too."

It's not for space considerations. Tom Boswell wrote a lengthy column that says a lot without saying anything about the World Baseball Classic. Yawn.

Instead of trying to fill you in on any of them, I'll just link you to a project that Baseball Primer is doing. For the last few years, they've been meticulously going through baseball history year by year and voting on the Hall of Fame. They've tried to relook at everyone's career, sticking as close as they can to the actual historical record. It's been interesting watching them considering such forgotten stars as Fred Dunlap or Lip Pike.

They've taken the extra step of including Negro leaguers in their evaluations, and have inducted many of them into the Hall. Here's their full index of Negro Leaguers that they dicussed.

The new inductees into the real Hall are linked below. Some of the discussion threads are better than others, and some include the actual historical stats that these players put up. It might help you get a better understanding of the actual people who were elected, and what kind of player they were. They deserve better than the list of names in the Post.

Ray Brown, pitcher
Willard Brown, shortstop/outfield
Andy Cooper, pitcher
Frank Grant, second base
Pete Hill, outfield
Biz Mackey, catcher
Jose Mendez, pitcher
Louis Santop, catcher
Mule Suttles, first base
Ben Taylor, first base
Cristobal Torriente, centerfield
Jud Wilson, third base