O'Neil and Minoso Overlooked ... Again

A special committee of 12 "experts" has reviewed a list of 39 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues and decided that 17 of them deserved induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Great! While few - if any - of the 17 names will be recognized by anyone but baseball historians, it's about time the Hall of Fame recognized more of those associated with the Negro Leagues. That's the good news ...

Baseball, however, always seems to find a way to screw things up. Of the 39 candidates on the ballot, only Buck O'Neil, 94, and Minnie Minoso, 83, are still alive and could have enjoyed the honor and taken part in the induction ceremonies on July 30. So the panel of "experts" - in their infinite wisdom - chose NOT to put them in. There are few things more subjective than deciding who belongs in the Hall of Fame and who doesn't ... especially when you're talking about players and executives whose contributions came over 50 years ago. Yet somehow the "experts" were able to sift through the sketchy stats available on the Negro League careers of O'Neil and Minoso and determine that they DO NOT belong in Cooperstown. Morons. They took an opportunity to make this summer's induction ceremonies truly special and chose instead to penalize O'Neil and Minoso for not being dead. Nice job guys.