Baseball - Not All Hall of Fame Honorees Are Inductees

Induction ceremonies for baseball's Hall of Fame will take place this year on July 26 in Cooperstown, and invariably it will be preceded by those members of the media who will exercise their annual piece of misinterpretation, something that may sound a bit anal, but is nonetheless important when it comes to writing and speaking about things in a historical context. The writers and broadcasters who will be honored that day will be referred to as "Hall of Famers" or "inductees," but that would be inaccurate.

This year, Dave Niehaus will receive the Ford C. Frick Award, emblematic of "major contributions" in baseball broadcasting, an honor which is indeed bestowed upon its recipients at the induction ceremony. But this award does not constitute induction into the Hall, nor has it ever. Neither does the Spink Award, which is given "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing" and which Larry Whiteside will get.

It has long been a common misconception among fans and members of the media that the writers and broadcasters so honored have been enshrinees. I fell under this misconception at one time myself. It was only in the process of writing a Hall of Fame trivia book that clarification of this issue became important to me.

I noticed that in a couple of "sports almanacs," it is stated that the Frick and Spink awards were not symbolic of enshrinement. Then, during a pilgrimage to the Hall of Fame in the course of my research, I visited the exhibit in the Hall of Fame Library that depicts these honorees, and in conversations with Hall of Fame officials, it was confirmed to me that indeed, the awards were not synonymous with induction.

If you need further affirmation, you can go to the Baseball Hall of Fame website - where under the description of both the Frick and Spink awards is the following passage -- "Each award recipient (not to be confused with an inductee)..."

Interestingly, the Negro Leaguers faced a similar fate when their "wing" was being discussed in 1971. The Negro Leaguers were to be honored in a separate "exhibit", without the distinction of being full members, to which Satchel Paige replied, "I ain't going in the back door to the Hall of Fame". Eventually, the Hall of Fame officials buckled to the tremendous public criticism that ensued and established former Negro Leaguers as "real" Hall of Famers.

Much of this may seem completely meaningless, except to someone like me, who has to ask questions that concern which Hall of Famers did this, and which Hall of Famers did that. In that instance, it indeed carries a certain degree of importance, in establishing who is and isn't a Hall of Famer.

I do contend, however, that some members of the print and broadcast media do indeed deserve full-fledged enshrinement, as many of them had as much impact, were responsible for as much contribution, as many of the players did. Not one per year, which would seem a bit much, but certainly an elite group, which would include people like Red Barber, Mel Allen, Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell, Harry Carey, Bob Prince, Jerome Holtzman, Bob Broeg, Hugh Fullerton, Red Smith, and some others.



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