Nothing too profound to say. Just figured I'd check in. It's a scorcher. Saw my wife's cousin's husband here, who brought his 5-year-old son, and they were carrying complimentary cups of water.
Who says the Yankees don't care about their fans?
For what it's worth, I think the Hall of Fame should include executives and, occasionally, owners. The Bowie Kuhn induction has to rank among the worst ever.
Okay, carry on.
Comments (8)
Hey Ken.
Had the opportunity to take the Yankee Stadium tour yesterday and after marching from Monument Park to the dugout and up to the press box in the 95 degee heat, I was thrilled to experience the frosty cold air blowing nicely near the Newsday seats. What I didn't expect were the Hooters girls serving frozen dacqruis.
Yes, the Yankees take care of its reporters.
~H
How do you quanitify the "accomplishments of owners and executives (and commissioners)? That's the problem and that's how we ended up with Bowie Kuhn. Players have hard and fast stats as do managers. You haven't weighed in on Walter O'Malley and don't know what you have read about the guy. I read enough to make me want to vote no. Walter and his son Peter are largely responsible for giving us Kuhn for 15 long years.
The new system of electing people other than players stinks. We need a very large pool of voters (like the BBWAA) so that a relative handful of mindless people can't put someone over the top. Such a small group would have been swallowed up in a pool as large as the BBWAA.
If owners and execs must be in the HOF they should be treated similar to writers, with an annual award (one) and a separate wing. Heck, Bowie wanted the Negro League greats in a separate wing. Yet, he is now going into the same stretch of hallowed ground as Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, etc. Disgraceful.
I don't know if Bowie Kuhn really wanted Negro Leaguers in a separate wing. He was facing opposition from people in the HOF and baseball community who felt "you needed 10 years to be in" and wouldn't budge despite the obvious incongruity of Paige, Gibson, Irvin etc weren't allowed to play. Kuhn didn't have the power to order them inducted, it is a separate non-profit organization. Kuhn says he started this to force a public debate to get the Hall to change it's mind which it did. I doubt this but it did work out but with bad publicity. Kuhn did make efforts to have African-Americans as managers and had some limited success with Robinson and Wills getting chances (Wills failed horribly. A real disaster. Read Rob Neyer's "Big Book of Baseball's Blunders". But he got a chance). In contrast Kuhn's more widely praised opposite Pete Rozelle did virtually nothing to improve football's diversity (the only hire was by Rozelle's bitter enemy Al Davis) yet the groveling sports writers, fans and politician's never called him on it.
I wouldn't have put in Kuhn but his regime had positives. Giving the fans a vote in the All Star game is a good idea. Putting some World series games on at night so the average working guy can see them is even better (I am always astounded by the number of sports writers who think fans can take two weeks off from work to watch games). He improved offense to increase fan's interest by changing the strike zone, lowering the mound and putting "batting eye background" in center field. I wouldn't have instituted the DH rule but most leagues in the world use it today.
But Kuhn did have a pompous nature where he thought he was truly an all-powerful czar. I don't think Judge Landis felt he was all-powerful, he just bluffed owners and lasted. Kuhn did and Marvin Miller beat him many times in courts on free agency, suspending druggies like Ferguson Jenkins.
Howard Cosell in the early 1970s was a strong critic of baseball. He says in his early 1980s book "I never played the game" he changed his mind by getting to know Kuhn, play tennis and drink vodka (Kuhn was pretty good in the latter). He found Kuhn always willing to answer tough questions, unlike Rozelle who was a PR guy by training and wouldn't.
What was the induction speech for Will Harridhe like. Ever ask one of these old timers like Jerome Holtzman?
Jim Clark, I have read enough to be convinced the Kuhn most certainly wanted the Negro greats in a separate wing because (his words) "They weren't real major leaguers." World Series night games? I have no problem with them, per se, but think it's a shame that 90%+ of all kids can't watch the games (at least on the East coast) because they end too late (heck, by the time they start, most kids are in bed). As a kid of 8 and 9 I remember watching the 1967 and 1968 World Series after school. I looked forward to it all day long. It's one of the ways I fell in love with the sport.
Howard Cosell was one of the few people in the world who could actually match egos with Kuhn. Cosell's endorsement clinches my opinion.
As far as Bowie having some positives, suffice it to say that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Jim: I'd be interested what what books you have read to support your view. In Bill James's book on the Hall of Fame "Politics of Glory" he devotes three pages on it.sentially there was a meeting early in Kuhn's tenure on the issue. Kuhn and "Daily News" columnist Dick Young were in favor of admitting Negro League players. Former commsissioner Ford Frick and Hall of Fame Paul Kerr were opposed.
Although Kuhn agreed with Young, he was appalled with Young's typical bully act against elderly Frick and the two began to argue about. "Lacking the votes to go to the Hall of Fame's board of dirctors,Kuhn convinced the Hall of Fame's officials to authorize a display at the Hall of fame, a separate exhibit to honor the Negbro League stars." This was probably a mistake, previosuly author Robert Peterson "Only the ball was white" had warned such an approach would not work. In light of the fierce public outburst, Kerr and the directors relented.
Perhaps Kuhn could have found another approach and perhaps James's account is wrong since it seems based on Bowie Kuhn's memoirs. But keep in mind it can be hard to change an institution like the Hall of Fame. Kuhn may also have been worried that players like Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell and Judy Johnson would be dead before he could change people's minds so he exposed them and himself to public criticism. Long time player/manager/baseball man Birdie Tebbettss and other tried for decades to get scouts admitted. They aren't. Some people want minor league stars like Buzz Arlett, Unser Choe Hauser and Tony Freitas admitted. They aren't.
You must have goone to a school district with different hours than me because I grew up in this era and got to see very few weekday games. Maybe home in time to catch Mantle's home run off Barney Schultz in 1964. But attendance and interest dropped in the 1960s despite a whole lot of great world series.
Jim C. I have read on the Kuhn-Negro Leagu-HOF controversy and continue to be convinced that Kuhn supported the notion of HOF membership for the Negro League greats, but thought they should be in a separate wing. Now, this idea didn't originate with him, to be sure, but he supported the notion until there was a public uproar and he was forced to take the lead in overturning that earlier decision. So, while Kuhn ultimately helped the Negro League greats get their just rewards, it was only after he supported denying them this honor. I read about it again today following a quick online search.
Here's one such link: (If you want others, let me know.)http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/2/152124/8125/607/506894
Regarding getting out of school to watch the World Series: My memory is hazy as to my precise school hours back then, but I recall we started rather early and were home by about 2:30, so I saw about half of each game. I went to school in the Elwood district in Huntington (LI). It was a small district and I lived a couple of miles from my school building.
Jim C: More online resources regarding Bowie Kuhn and The Issue are posted below. Some people think Bowie was a strenuous advocate for the separate wing proposal.
http://umpbump.com/press/33-men-and-one-woman-out-the-all-time-worst-hall-of-famers/
Michael O’Keeffe of the NY Daily News wrote a scathing piece on Kuhn on 12.4.07, including the Negro League HOF separate wing controversy. The item can be found via this link: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/2007/12/
Jim C: The item below is an excerpt from an excellent online biography of Satchel Paige.
Again, it condemns Kuhn and states he announced on Feb. 9, 1971 that Paige was going into the “Negro wing” of the HOF. I know Ken will want to hang me for this long post but, here goes:
"Bowie Kuhn replaced William Eckert as the Commissioner of Baseball in 1969. In the wake of Ted Williams' 1966 Hall of Fame induction speech urging induction of Negro Leaguers, and on the recommendation of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Kuhn empowered a ten-man committee to sift through hundreds of names and nominate the first group of four Negro League players to go to the Hall of Fame. Because Paige pitched in Greensboro in 1966, he would not have been eligible for enshrinement until 1971, as players have to be out of professional baseball for at least five years before they can be elected. All of the men on the committee agreed that Paige had to be the first Negro league player to get elected, so this gave Kuhn plenty of time to create some sort of Negro league branch in the Hall of Fame. On February 9, 1971 Kuhn announced that Paige would be the first member of the Negro wing of the Hall of Fame. Because many in the press saw the suggestion of a "Negro wing" as separate-but-equal and blasted major league baseball for the idea, by the time that Paige’s induction came around on August 9, Kuhn convinced the owners and the private trust of the Hall of Fame that there should be no separate wing after all. It was decided that all who had been chosen and all who would be chosen would get their plaques in the “regular” section of the Hall of Fame."