Herzog's numbers as a manager make him a decent but not great selection. Whether its true or not Herzog also always seemed to be (if you will forgive the expression) "adding more value" than his peers. Or at least that was his reputation. The same goes for LaRussa currently (but not with the A's) and Billy Martin historically. They were/are Managers who won with less talent and more guile. Again, I have no idea if that's really true but that has been their reputation. Yankee Managers like Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel , Joe Torre had great teams -- or more accurately great groups of individuals -- and managed to get them to win. This is no small feat either especially when the talented players bring all kinds of issues to the table --> see Rodriguez, Alex, Ruth, Babe.
As to Marvin Miller's snub : My understanding of the mission of the HOF would virtually require his induction. Like it or not, his impact on the game has been enormous. Personally I appreciate his work and believe that the management voters on these special committees have really done the Hall of Fame a dis-service by not voting him in while populating the HOF with more owners (Dreyfus, O'Malley etc) and a commissioner who was at best mediocre. The question is becoming which Commissioners should not be in the HOF since every Commissioner up to Kuhn is now inducted. How about Ueberoth (sp), Giamatti, Vincent and (yes) Bud Seelig. My guess is that Selig will ultimately stumble into the Hall as a result of his long tenure in the office and be credited (rightly or wrongly) with the game's growth and prosperity during this time.
The permissive PED "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" culture of the late 90's and early 00's will keep a lot of players out of the HOF, but not Bud.
Hard to comment inteligently on the umpire selection. Froemming's reputation was great and given the current Umpires in the HOF, he umpired during a period of time that is insufficiently represented (by umpires). If he was in fact the best then he belongs unless we want to toss out some -- or all -- of the Umps currently enshrined. Based on this rationale Hank O'Day warrants induction too, but his legacy is somewhat tainted by his call on 9/23/1908 (Merkle out).
Given the politics of the voting (ie who the actual voters are), I was most surprised that Bill White was not chosen. He was a former player (good not great) who became the first minority League President (NL 1989-94) and he is still alive to enjoy his induction. When I was trying to figure out which of the candidates were most likely to gain induction from this group for purposes of my HOF collection, I thought that White and Froemming were the only surefire candidates.
|