Building the Ballot: The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Era Committees

Today, Adrián Beltré, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer were elected to the Hall of Fame via the BBWAA Ballot. Dave Metter (@CooperstownDave) joins me to discuss the election results and answer listener questions.

Tonight, Jim Leyland was announced as the lone inductee to the Hall of Fame from the Contemporary Era Committee’s Non-Player Ballot. Adam and Dave discuss the results of the election and look forward to future elections.

The Hall of Fame released the Contemporary Baseball Era’s Non-Players ballot, so I got on the line with Graham Womack and Dave Metter to discuss the candidates.

Today I’m stepping outside of the Hall of Fame echo chamber to chat with an “old school” baseball guy (or maybe he just plays one on Twitter?). Even if we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things like WAR, I always appreciate remembering some underrated players with Not Gaetti (sorry, that’s the only name I’m at liberty to use). We discuss the Contemporary Baseball Era ballot, the BBWAA ballot, hitters (him) and pitchers (me), and a lot more.

Not Gaetti on Twitter: https://twitter.com/notgaetti

Today Fred McGriff was selected for Hall of Fame induction by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. Graham and I discuss the results, what they mean for future elections, and more.

Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude

Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

Today the Hall of Fame announced the 2023 Contemporary Baseball Era Players Ballot. It is loaded with complicated candidates (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro) and “clean” ones (Dale Murphy, Fred McGriff, Don Mattingly). Oh, and Albert Belle. We don’t know how to classify him. To break it all down we are joined by Graham Womack.

Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude

Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

The Hall of Fame threw us a curveball and announced some new changes to the Era Committee process, effective immediately. We’re joined again by Graham Womack to discuss the new Contemporary Baseball Era and Classic Baseball Era committees.

Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude

Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

After our deep dive into the Early Baseball and Golden Days Eras (including sidebars into Negro League and Latin American Baseball) in Season 1, we finally turn our attention to the 2023 Today’s Game Era Ballot in Season 2. Today we’re joined by Graham Womack to discuss the history of this Committee, who the returning candidates are, and the incredible group of new candidates who are eligible. In all, we cover 50 players and over a dozen non-playing candidates.

Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude

Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

There’s one more episode I wanted to do before moving on to the next election cycle. When researching the Negro Leagues, the Pre-Negro Leagues, and Negro League MLEs, something kept coming up—Cuban baseball. It’s hard to talk about the Negro Leagues without including Cuban baseball. Today’s guest, Gary Ashwill of the Seamheads Negro League Database, will share stories about Cuban baseball and some of the major stars who were born in Cuba. We’ll discuss Julián Castillo, Carlos Morán, Regino García, Ramón Bragaña, Lázaro Salazar, José Muñoz, Silvio García, and more.

Seamheads Negro League Database: https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/

Gary’s blog Agate Type: https://agatetype.typepad.com/

Julián Castillo: https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=casti01jul

Carlos Morán: https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=moran01car

Regino García: https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=garci01reg

Mark Armour returns for a chat that focuses on the Golden Days Era—specifically the 1955–1970 National League, which Mark calls “the best league ever.” Stars of the Negro Leagues were integrating the majors, but it was the National League that led the way. This leads to a pretty large disparity of talent between the NL and AL during the first two decades of integration. We look at some players from this era who deserve a longer look because of this.

Mark is the President of SABR’s Board of Directors, a Bob Davids Award and Henry Chadwick Award winner, the founder and longtime director of the SABR Bio Project, and an author.

Mark’s Website: http://www.mark-armour.net/

Mark Armour on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkArmour04

Today I chat with Graig Kreindler, “The Painter of the National Pastime.” We discussed how he started painting baseball and how that turned into the huge Negro Leagues project (and card set) commissioned by Jay Caldwell for the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Then, Graig shared some stories about intersting subjects he’s tackled over the years by constructing a lineup.

Graig’s website: https://www.graigkreindler.com/

Graig on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GraigKreindler

Graig on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graigkreindler/

Today we continue to explore the Negro Leagues and Negro League Hall of Fame candidates. We welcome Gary Gillette, Ted Knorr, and Sean Gibson to the podcast. Gillette, Knorr, and Gibson have joined together to form a new committee—named "42 for 21"—to publicize deserving Negro Leagues & Black Baseball candidates for upcoming Hall of Fame elections. We discuss their backgrounds, how the project started, the election that took place, and what comes next for the project. We specifically looked at a handful of candidates that performed very well in the election but don’t rank as highly with Eric Chalek’s Negro League MLEs: Rap Dixon, Newt Allen, Spottswood Poles, John Donaldson, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, Oliver “The Ghost” Marcell, and Chet Brewer.

Gary Gillette is the founder and current chair of the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium, a nonprofit that is working to restore the former Negro League ballpark near his home in Detroit. Gillette also served for a decade on the Tiger Stadium Conservancy’s board of directors. He has four decades of baseball research, writing, and editing experience, beginning with his work with Bill James and Project Scoresheet in the mid-1980s. A contributor to six editions of Total Baseball, Gillette later designed and co-edited with Pete Palmer the five editions of the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia. Gillette also designed the ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia and served as executive editor for both editions of that reference work. A former member of the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR) board of directors, Gillette is a past co-chair of two of SABR’s major research committees—the Business of Baseball Committee and the Ballparks Committee. He was the founder and president of SABR’s Detroit Chapter and is now the chair of SABR’s new Southern Michigan Chapter.

Ted Knorr has been a baseball fan since infancy, when his grandma gave him a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey. A few years later, an aunt introduced him to baseball via Ladies Nights at Forbes Field. Later still, a childhood friend—Martha—introduced him to the APBA Major League Baseball Game. Ted has been a SABR member since 1979 and, in 1998, founded and hosted the initial Jerry Malloy Negro League Research Conference.

Sean Gibson is the great-grandson of Negro Leagues legend and 1972 National Baseball Hall of Fame player Josh Gibson. Sean has dedicated his life to the preservation of Josh’s legacy and is the Executive Director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, a Pittsburgh-area non-profit organization. The Josh Gibson Foundation was established in 1994 in an effort to keep the memory of Pittsburgh’s beloved Josh Gibson and the entire Negro Leagues alive. The foundation partners with the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University and Carnegie Mellon University by matching up college students with elementary and middle school youth for tutoring. With a strong focus on education, the foundation currently serves roughly 300 children and plans to increase those numbers by starting new programs yearly. The foundation also sponsors the Josh Gibson Baseball Academy.

42 for 21: https://www.42for21.org/

The Josh Gibson Foundation: https://www.joshgibson.org/

The Era Committee elections may be over, but that doesn't mean I've stopped thinking about them. Since we last chatted, Eric Chalek's Negro League MLEs have been added to the Hall of Stats to power Hall Rating for Negro League candidates. Kevin Johnson of Seamheads joins the podcast to talk about the best Negro League (and Latin) candidates outside the Hall of Fame. MLE Hall Rating frames the discussion, but we're really just learning about candidate after candidate. Some you may know (like Sam Bankhead, Sam Jethroe, or Newt Allen). Some you may not (like Carlos Morán, Bill Pettus, and Leon Kellman).

Kevin Johnson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KJOKBASEBALL

Seamheads Negro League Database: https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php

Hall of Stats MLE Hall Ratings: http://hallofstats.com/nlmle

The Hall of Fame's Early Baseball (pre-1950) and Golden Days (1950-1969) Era results are in and we have SIX new Hall of Famers. In the episode, Graham and I discuss the inductions of Minnie Miñoso, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, Buck O'Neil, and Bud Fowler. We also touch upon those who didn't make it (like Dick Allen once again finishing a vote short). We answer some questions from listeners—including an early look at how the Today's Game Era ballot could look next year.

Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

After spending ten episodes figuring out who should be on the Hall of Fame's Early Baseball (pre-1950) and Golden Days (1950-1969) Era ballots, they finally came out on Friday, November 5. Graham Womack is back to discuss who made it on the ballot, who did not, how we would vote, and what we think might happen.

Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

In today’s special episode, we return to the Negro Leagues to chat with Eric Chalek, a researcher who has developed a set of MLEs (Major League Equivalencies) for Negro League stars. For the first time we can see Martîn Dihigo with 3,082 hits and 381 home runs—or Smokey Joe Williams with a 390-301 record with a 2.68 ERA—or Cool Papa Bell with 3,366 hits and 405 steals—or Josh Gibson with 435 home runs (remember, he only played through age 34).

Eric Chalek on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricChalek

Eric's SABR presentation on MLEs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zU_b610-iE&t=217s

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Over the last three episodes, we covered a lot of candidates, but there were a few that I felt we didn’t explore enough. In this episode, we dig into those candidates.

First, Mark Armour tells us about the career of Felipe Alou. Mark is the president of the SABR board, founder of the SABR Bio Project, and an author.

Mark Armour on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkArmour04

Next, Graham Womack of Baseball Past and Present joins us again to discuss manager Danny Murtaugh. 

Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

Finally, Mark Shirk of Exploring Baseball History shares his cases for high peak candidates Al Rosen and Elston Howard (plus some bonus content on Jim Gilliam).

Mark Shirk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bballhist

Exploring Baseball History: http://thebaseballhistorian.com/

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Chris Bodig of Cooperstown Cred joins the podcast to discuss the 2015 Golden Era results, a relatively new rule added to the Era Committee process, and (of course) the players who would both make his ballot and get his vote.

Chris Bodig on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cooperstowncred

Cooperstown Cred: https://www.cooperstowncred.com/

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. This time we welcome a very special guest: Jessica Brand. Jessica is sabermetrician, baseball historian, and a Stathead legend. We discuss the process Jessica would take toward building a Golden Days Era ballot. We touched upon some of the more sabermetricallly-qualified candidates in this episode.

Jessica Brand on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JessicaDBrand

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Graham Womack joins the podcast again to discuss the history of the Golden Days Era Committee as well as the ten names he’d place on his ballot (and a few more).

Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complicate matters, this committee won’t meet again for ten years.

Graham Womack joins the podcast again to discuss non-players—managers, executives, umpires, and contributors. Names like Charlie Grimm, Sam Breadon, Cy Rigler, and Lefty O’Doul come up. We also discuss Buck O’Neil as Graham makes his list from the candidates not chosen yet. Then we build a 10-man ballot, one pick at a time.

Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complicate matters, this committee won’t meet again for ten years.

This episode covers the pioneers of the game, from its origins into the 20th century. SABR member Joe Williams joins the podcast. We talk about baseball’s origins (candidates like Doc Adams and Will Wheaton), Black Baseball (Bud Fowler, Grant Johnson, George Stovey, Octavius Catto, etc.), Amateur Era players (Jim Creighton, Joe Leggett, Joe Sprague, etc.), National Association Era players (Ross Barnes, Dickey Pearce, Joe Start, etc.), and more (Al Reach, Chris Von der Ahe, John Gaffney, Lefty O’Doul, etc.). 

Joe Williams on Twitter: http://twitter.com/lheadsgridiron

SABR Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends: https://sabr.org/sabr-overlooked-19th-century-baseball-legends

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complicate matters, this committee won’t meet again for ten years.

This episode covers the Negro major leagues as well as top Black players and pioneers before the establishment of the Negro National League in 1920. Scott Simkus from the Seamheads Negro League Database (and author of “Outsider Baseball: The Weird World of Hardball on the Fringe, 1876–1950”) joins the podcast. We started with how box scores are added to the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database and moved on to a history of Negro League players in the Hall of Fame. We then covered dozens of candidates, from Buck O’Neil to Dobie Moore to Grant “Home Run” Johnson.

Scott Simkus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scott_simkus

Outsider Baseball: The Weird World of Hardball on the Fringe, 1876–1950: https://www.amazon.com/Outsider-Baseball-Weird-Hardball-Fringe/dp/1613748167

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complicate matters, this committee won’t meet again for ten years.

This episode covers the White major leagues from 1871 to 1949. We’ll cover 19th century players like Bill Dahlen, Harry Stovey, Jim McCormick, and Charlie Bennett along with 20th century stars Wes Ferrell, Sherry Magee, Bob Johnson, and Wally Schang. Jay Jaffe, Senior Writer for Fangraphs and author of the Cooperstown Casebook joins the podcast.

Jay Jaffe on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jay_jaffe

The Cooperstown Casebook: https://cooperstowncasebook.com/

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complicate matters, this committee won’t meet again for ten years. 

This episode is an introduction to the podcast with baseball historian Graham Womack of Baseball Past and Present. Graham and I discuss the history of the Veterans Committee and Era Committees, how these ballots are constructed, and why this committee will only meet once per decade. We tossed around a few names you could expect to hear in the forthcoming episodes. 

Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude 

Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/