If you, like me, seem to lose track of where things stand during the baseball offseason, you might find yourself caught unawares that today has historic potential for former players both White Sox and otherwise. Today, the 16-member Early Baseball and Golden Days Era Committees over at the Hall of Fame vote on twenty candidates, some of whom have significant White Sox ties. Results for both ballots will be announced at 6 pm ET on MLB Network’s MLB Tonight.
- Early Baseball Committee: covers candidates who made their greatest impacts in baseball prior to 1950. Players with White Sox ties include: John Donaldson.
- Golden Days Era Committee: covers candidates who made their greatest impacts during the 1950-69 period. Players with White Sox ties include: Minnie Miñoso, Dick Allen, and Billy Pierce.
I think Sox Machine has done a pretty bang-up job outlining Miñoso's case --and linking to others who have done so-- but in case you missed some of those pieces, here's a short rundown:
I already linked to Jay Jaffe's piece on Miñoso above, but he also had great overviews on Billy Pierce and Dick Allen:
With those three covered, let's highlight the lesser-known of the four White Sox candidates:
James Fegan of The Athletic adeptly profiles former Negro Leaguer and White Sox scout John Donaldson:
“In 1971, when Satchel Paige goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame, many people thought then that John Donaldson should be the (next) person in the Baseball Hall of Fame,” said Gorton. “A lot of people from the Upper Midwest thought that was going to happen. What came back was they thought: they’ll never find John Donaldson’s career. It’s impossible, they said. It would be impossible for anybody to ever figure out all the places John Donaldson went to. And indeed, it wasn’t possible in 1970.
Overall, there are strong cases to be made for a number of the names on both ballots. Here's hoping each committee does justice/repairs past injustices to the candidates.
