Is Baseball's Hall of Fame Overpopulated? ...or

[SteveMitchell]

Fans and hobbyists who think the National Baseball Hall of Fame is bloated, watered down, etc., with less-than-HOF talent, might want to consider the following excerpt (taken from the HOF's website):

"[Newly elected Jacob] Ruppert became the 33rd executive [emphasis added] elected to the Hall of Fame and owned the Yankees from 1915-39. Ruppert. who received 15 of 16 votes (93.8 percent) from the Pre-Integration Era Committee, bought the Yankees in 1915 and quickly turned a second-division team into the game’s most prominent franchise..."

According to Baseball-Reference.com, 18,040 different men have played baseball at the Major League level. Even given that many were there for the proverbial cup of coffee it does seem that the population of Executives in the Hall of Fame might be excessive.

A different view, however, might be that a field of 18,000+ of the finest ballplayers of all-time ought to produce a Hall of Fame numbering 300-500 players - particularly when a few thousand Negro Leaguers who had no opportunity to play in the majors are also added to the pool.