The BASEBALL RELIQUARY Inc.
Baseball Reliquary Announces Candidates for
2012 Election of the Shrine of the Eternals
The Baseball Reliquary, Inc. has announced its list of fifty eligible
candidates for the 2012 election of the Shrine of the Eternals, the membership
organization’s equivalent to the Baseball Hall of Fame. This year marks the
fourteenth annual election of the Shrine, a major national component of the
Baseball Reliquary, a Southern California-based organization dedicated to
fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of
baseball history. The thirty-nine individuals previously elected to the Shrine
of the Eternals are, in alphabetical order: Jim Abbott, Dick Allen, Roger
Angell, Emmett Ashford, Moe Berg, Yogi Berra, Ila Borders, Jim Bouton, Jim
Brosnan, Bill Buckner, Roberto Clemente, Steve Dalkowski, Rod Dedeaux, Jim
Eisenreich, Dock Ellis, Mark Fidrych, Curt Flood, Ted Giannoulas, Josh Gibson,
Pete Gray, William “Dummy” Hoy, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bill James, Bill
“Spaceman” Lee, Roger Maris, Marvin Miller, Minnie Minoso, Buck O’Neil, Satchel
Paige, Jimmy Piersall, Pam Postema, Jackie Robinson, Lester Rodney, Pete Rose,
Casey Stengel, Fernando Valenzuela, Bill Veeck, Jr., Maury Wills, and Kenichi
Zenimura.
The Shrine of the Eternals is similar in concept to the annual elections
held at the Baseball Hall of Fame, but differs philosophically in that
statistical accomplishment is not a criterion for election. Rather, the Shrine’s
annual ballot is comprised of individuals – from the obscure to the well-known –
who have altered the baseball world in ways that supersede statistics.
On a procedural level, the Shrine of the Eternals differs significantly
from the Baseball Hall of Fame in the manner by which electees are chosen. While
the Baseball Hall of Fame’s electees are chosen in voting conducted by a select
group of sportswriters or committees, the Baseball Reliquary chooses its
enshrinees by a vote open to the public. A screening committee appointed by the
Reliquary’s Board of Directors prepares a ballot consisting of fifty candidates,
on which the membership votes annually. The three candidates receiving the
highest percentage of votes gain automatic election.
Among the fifty eligible candidates for 2012, ten individuals appear on
the Shrine of the Eternals ballot for the first time. Two candidates, Charlie
Finley and Joe Pepitone, return to the ballot after a long absence. (Finley
appeared on the ballot once in 1999, and Pepitone appeared once in 2002.) The
newcomers and returnees, in alphabetical order, are:
GARY BELL
(b. 1936)—Immortalized
in the pages of Jim Bouton’s Ball Four as a charter member of the
beer-pounding, beaver-shooting Seattle Pilots, the good-natured, wise-cracking
Bell (inevitably nicknamed “Ding Dong”) came up with Cleveland in 1958 as a
“can’t-miss” pitching prospect, part of a strong staff that eventually included
Mudcat Grant, Sam McDowell, and Luis Tiant. Bell posted solid if unspectacular
numbers with the Indians for a decade until a trade to the Red Sox in 1967
placed him in the midst of their “Impossible Dream” pennant-winning season. The
cheerful Texan is the answer to the perennially-asked trivia question: “Who was
the winning pitcher in the Pilots’ first home game?”
BILL BERGEN
(1878–1943)—Whoever
first offered the canard, “I don’t care what my catcher hits; he’s in there for
defense,” must have been thinking of Bill Bergen, a defensively superb dead-ball
era catcher who would have been forgotten entirely if not for the fact that he
holds the most dubious record in baseball history: lowest batting average
ever—.170—for a player with 2500 or more at-bats; a record that makes
latter-day lightweights like Ray Oyler and Mario Mendoza look like Ty Cobb.
STEVE BILKO
(1928–1978)—Moon-faced
first baseman who wrapped a so-so major league career around a legendary stint
in the Pacific Coast League, where he paced the circuit in home runs for three
consecutive seasons (1955 to 1957), and won the PCL’s Triple Crown in 1956 with
a phenomenal display of slugging for the Los Angeles Angels. Astutely drafted by
the expansion Angels of the American League in 1961, the extraordinarily popular
Bilko made further inroads into pop culture immortality as the source for the
name of the Phil Silvers’ character, Sgt. Bilko, on the actor’s television
program.
BERT CAMPANERIS
(b. 1942)—Speedy,
durable shortstop for the Kansas City-Oakland franchise of the 1960s and
̒70s
whose flash and flair embodied the spirit of the Swingin’ A’s. A six-time All
Star who once played all nine positions in a single game, “Campy” in his prime
was arguably the best shortstop between the Luis Aparicio and Dave Concepcion
eras.
JOSE CANSECO
(b. 1964)—Wayward
Cuban-born slugger of prodigious gifts and blasé demeanor who, with fellow “Bash
Brother” Mark McGwire, led the Oakland A’s back to respectability in the late
1980s. His open admission of steroid use throughout his career, documented in
several tell-all books, made him a pariah in MLB circles after his retirement.
CHARLES “VICTORY” FAUST
(1880‒1915)—Few
baseball tales are as odd—or ultimately, sad—as the story of Charlie “Victory”
Faust, a gawky stringbean of a man who in 1911 managed to convince New York
Giants manager John McGraw that he, Faust, was destined to pitch the team to a
World Series championship, and furthermore had the talent to jinx opposing teams
(“put the whommy on ‘em,” as Casey Stengel might have said). With Faust adopted
by McGraw as team mascot/good luck charm, the Giants did win the 1911 NL pennant
(though they lost in the World Series), and Faust did pitch in two meaningless
games. Faust faded into oblivion after the 1912 season, dying in a Washington
sanitarium in 1915, until his story was resurrected a half-century later by
historian Larry Ritter.
CHARLIE FINLEY
(1918–1996)—A
man of great vision and even greater vindictiveness, Charles Oscar Finley
parlayed his self-made man act into ownership of the struggling Kansas City
Athletics, moved the franchise to Oakland, and singlehandedly (literally, for
his neuroses allowed him to trust no one) resurrected the team’s fortunes.
Forever willing to employ newfangled ideas (orange baseballs, mix-and-match
uniforms, night games during the World Series, etc.), his tangles with everyone,
from baseball commissioner to the lowliest replacement-level player, are
legendary for their crassness, yet many of his innovations have become so
commonplace as to be entirely unremarkable today.
ANNABELLE LEE
(1922–2008)—The
poetically named southpaw pitched with four different teams in the All-American
Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from 1944 through 1950 and is
credited with hurling the first perfect game in league history in 1944, adding a
no-hitter to her credentials the following season. A Los Angeles native whose
father played in the Pacific Coast League and whose nephew Bill Lee was a Red
Sox legend, Annabelle Lee is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
HIDEO NOMO
(b. 1968)—Credited
with opening the door to Major League Baseball for native Japanese players,
right-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo established himself as a star early in his
career with the Kinetsu Buffaloes (1990–1994) before
taking advantage of a contractual loophole to sign with the L.A. Dodgers. Using
an exaggerated, jerky windmill motion (the genesis of his nickname “The
Tornado”), Nomo became an overnight sensation in the U.S., ushering in the era
of “Nomomania” while winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1995. He became
an itinerant pitcher after a few seasons with the Dodgers, and never really
captured the nation’s enthusiasm again after his rookie campaign, but by then
U.S. fans had other Japanese stars to cheer for—Ichiro, Matsui, Hasegawa,
Matsuzaka, and many others.
LEFTY O’DOUL
(1897–1969)—A
man of many hats—most of them green, to match his favorite color of suit—the
legacy of Francis “Lefty” O’Doul is so varied and accomplished as to defy neat
description: a San Francisco native, still revered as a favorite son of the city
(his sports bar is still a civic landmark), O’Doul began his big-league career
as a relief pitcher, but re-emerged as a slugger after a reclamation stint in
the Pacific Coast League. He terrorized NL pitchers during the late 1920s and
early 1930s, won two batting titles, nearly hit .400 in 1929, and retired with
the fourth-best career average of .349 in 1934. Returning to the PCL, he managed
the San Francisco Seals through one of their most productive periods, mentored
the young Joe DiMaggio, and established a reputation as one of the greatest
hitting coaches in history. He also found time to work as a baseball ambassador
to Japan, giving the professional game a leg up in that country. He is in
everyone’s Hall of Fame except for the one that counts: Cooperstown.
JOE PEPITONE
(b. 1940)—Among
baseball’s legendary fuck-ups and problem children, few can surpass the
reputation of Brooklyn’s own Joe Pepitone, a swinger in more ways than one,
whose best years in baseball (1963‒1966) dovetail
neatly with the decline of the mighty Yankee franchise. An acknowledged fashion
plate, “Pepi” consistently amazed with his collection of designer hairpieces,
sharply tailored suits, and shark-suited “friends”—after a disappointing stint
with the Yakult Atoms his name entered the Japanese vernacular as a synonym for
“screw-up.”
TONI STONE
(1931–1996)—Born
Marcenia Lyle Alberga, Toni Stone played baseball from the moment she could
walk, a standout player among local boy’s teams, American Legion squads, and
black semi-pro outfits through the WWII era. Barred from play in the segregated
AAGPBL, she was signed in 1953 by the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American
League to play second base, a position recently vacated by Henry Aaron. She had
her greatest thrill in baseball with the Clowns: a chance to bat against Satchel
Paige. A victim of the sexism prevalent among all races during the era, her
skills as an athlete were overshadowed by her value as a publicity tool, and
after a stint with the fabled Kansas City Monarchs in 1954, she retired. She was
inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, and is memorialized in
two separate permanent displays at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A complete list of all fifty candidates for the 2012 election of the
Shrine of the Eternals follows. Election packets, containing ballots and
biographical profiles of all candidates, will be mailed to Baseball Reliquary
members on April 1, 2012. To be eligible to vote, all persons must have their
minimum $25.00 annual membership dues paid as of March 31, 2012.
The three new inductees will be announced in May, with the Induction Day
ceremony scheduled for Sunday, July 15, 2012 in
Pasadena, California. In addition to the presentation of plaques to the 2012
inductees, this year’s ceremony will honor the recipients of the 2012 Hilda
Award (named in memory of Hilda Chester and acknowledging a baseball fan’s
exceptional devotion to the game) and the 2012 Tony Salin Memorial Award
(presented annually to an individual dedicated to the preservation of baseball
history).
For additional information on the Shrine of the Eternals, contact Terry
Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary, at P.O. Box 1850,
Monrovia, CA 91017; by phone at (626) 791-7647; or by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net.
THE SHRINE OF THE
ETERNALS
|
2012 Candidates |
|
1. Eliot Asinof (9) | 26. Effa Manley (14) |
2. Gary Bell (New!) | 27. Conrado Marrero (3) |
3. Bill Bergen (New!) | 28. Dr. Mike Marshall (7) |
4. Steve Bilko (New!) | 29. Tug McGraw (9) |
5. Steve Blass (3) | 30. Fred Merkle (6) |
6. Chet Brewer (13) | 31. Manny Mota (5) |
7. Charlie Brown (5) | 32. Hideo Nomo (New!) |
8. Jefferson Burdick (3) | 33. Lefty O’Doul (New!) |
9. Glenn Burke (5) | 34. Joe Pepitone (2) |
10. Bert Campaneris (New!) | 35. Phil Pote (10) |
11. Jose Canseco (New!) | 36. Vic Power (4) |
12. Charles M. Conlon (11) | 37. Curtis Pride (2) |
13. Dizzy Dean (12) | 38. Dan Quisenberry (6) |
14. Bucky Dent (4) | 39. J.R. Richard (13) |
15. Hector Espino (3) | 40. Annie Savoy (2) |
16. Charles Faust (New!) | 41. Rusty Staub (7) |
17. Donald Fehr (2) | 42. Chuck Stevens (4) |
18. Eddie Feigner (12) | 43. Toni Stone (New!) |
19. Lisa Fernandez (12) | 44. Luis Tiant (10) |
20. Charlie Finley (2) | 45. Fay Vincent (11) |
21. Rube Foster (14) | 46. Rube Waddell (14) |
22. Jim "Mudcat" Grant (8) | 47. John Montgomery Ward (6) |
23. Ernie Harwell (9) | 48. David Wells (2) |
24. Dr. Frank Jobe (10) | 49. Wilbur Wood (2) |
25. Annabelle Lee (New!) | 50. Don Zimmer (8) |