Three New Hall of Famers

It was announced today that the "Expansion Era Committee" of Baseball Hall of Fame electors has elected Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre, and Bobby Cox to the Hall of Fame.  All enter as managers, although you could make a semi-reasonable argument that Torre belongs there as a player as well.   

LaRussa endorsed a statement released by writers George Will and Buzz Bissinger that the "Hall of Fame" is now worthy of it's name now that he, LaRussa, has been formally enshrined.

I made that last part up, but expect the "LaRussa-Is-A-Genius" columns to spew forth from columnists across the land in the days ahead.

Actually, I have no problem with any of these three going into the hallowed Hall in Cooperstown, and I am sure that the Hall itself is tickled to death to have at least three guys who are still alive at the induction ceremony next summer, considering what happened there this past summer ( http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2013/07/baseball-hall-of-fame-induction-day.html ).  The BBWA result, where it is expected that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and possibly Frank Thomas, will be announced next month, so it should make for a great Induction Weekend in Cooperstown in July.

Of course, perhaps the bigger story is that Marvin Miller has once again been denied entry to the HOF.  You needed 12 of 16 votes to gain entry, and I believe that at least four of the electors are "management" representatives, so I am guessing that at least one or more players on the committee voted against Miller's entry as well.  Dumbfounding, positively dumbfounding.

And, of course, for a most zealous segment of baseball fandom, anger and anguish still prevails over the fact that Gil Hodges is not in the Hall of Fame!

To Absent Friends: Marvin Miller

Marvin Miller, the first Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Union, died today at the age of 95.  Few men, and certainly no executive, cast a bigger shadow upon Major League Baseball than did Marvin Miller.  That he is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame is a supreme injustice, and proof that even decades after his retirement, he continues to rankle the baseball establishment.

I will not recount the historic contributions of Marvin Miller.  If you are a baseball fan, you already know them, and you know his place in history.  As an obit I just read on Yahoo! Sports just put it, if you were to draw up a list of the most influential people in baseball history, and if after five names your list does NOT include Marvin Miller, then you need to start your list over again.

At the SABR Convention I attended in Cincinnati a few years back, Miller was the Keynote Speaker, and it was fascinating to hear him.  Well in his eighties and long retired at the time, Miller still retained all of the passion that he brought to the job when he first took it in 1966.  Every player in MLB should wear some sort of patch on their uniforms in 2013 in tribute to Miller, but I doubt that the Lords of the Realm will allow it to happen.

RIP Marvin Miller.