The BASEBALL RELIQUARY Inc.
Baseball Reliquary Announces Candidates for
2013 Election of the Shrine of the Eternals
The
Baseball Reliquary, Inc. has announced its list of fifty eligible candidates for
the 2013 election of the Shrine of the Eternals, the membership organization’s
equivalent to the Baseball Hall of Fame. This year marks the fifteenth 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 forty-two
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, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, Pete Gray,
William “Dummy” Hoy, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bill James, Dr. Frank Jobe, 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, Luis Tiant, 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 2013, eleven individuals appear
on the Shrine of the Eternals ballot for the first time. One candidate, Sy
Berger, returns to the ballot after a long absence. (Berger appeared on the
ballot twice, in 2001 and again in 2002.) The newcomers and returnee, in
alphabetical order, are:
Sy Berger (b.
1923) –
Frequently cited as the father of the modern baseball card, Berger joined the
Topps Company, manufacturer of chewing gum, as a sales promotion executive after
WWII. In 1952 he designed the
template for and oversaw the production of an annual series of baseball trading
cards that would quickly emerge as the most coveted Pop Culture artifacts of the
1950s and 1960s – the Topps baseball card – and send the fortunes of the company
soaring.
Octavius V.
Catto (1839–1871) –
African-American scholar, educator, community activist, political
organizer, and baseball player, Catto founded and managed the all-black
Philadelphia Pythian Baseball Club shortly after the end of the Civil War. In
1869 Catto’s Pythians played the first recorded interracial baseball game in
history, taking on an all-white nine comprised of Philadelphia newspapermen. His
growing prominence in local and national Republican Party affairs made him an
increasing threat to white Democrats; he was assassinated on his doorstep in
1871 as he returned from voting.
Rocky Colavito
(b. 1933) – Bronx-born slugger who became the most popular Cleveland
Indians player during the 1950s, the Rock’s 1960 trade to the Detroit Tigers
started a protracted pennant death-spiral in The Forest City. Endless Indian
woes later gave rise to The Curse of Rocky Colavito, sportswriter Terry Pluto’s
ironic riff on The Curse of the Bambino, which put the whammy on Red Sox Nation
for decades after Boston’s sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees earlier in the
century.
Warren
Cromartie
(b. 1953) – Dependable, fan-friendly
Major League outfielder/first baseman with the (erstwhile) Montreal Expos whose
infectious spirit led the franchise to christen a confection – the Cro-Bar – in
his honor. Cromartie’s later career as a respected
gaijin (outsider) player in Japan was documented in his 1992
autobiography, Slugging It Out in Japan.
In 2012 he became a leading spokesman for The Montreal Baseball Project, a
community-based effort to return professional baseball to Montreal.
Carlos Delgado
(b. 1972) – Puerto Rican-born slugger who modeled his career and
later social activism upon the work of Roberto Clemente, his boyhood idol. A
perennial standout for the Blue Jays, Marlins, and Mets, Delgado played from
1993 through 2009, clouting 473 career home runs in the process. In 2004,
increasingly troubled by U.S. belligerence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Delgado
began silent protests by walking off the field while “God Bless America” played
during the seventh inning stretch. He is currently involved in a variety of
philanthropic and educational causes.
Fred Hutchinson
(1919–1964) –
A favorite son of Seattle known as much for his grind-it-out work ethic as
his explosive temper, this mid-century Detroit Tigers twirler later became a
successful manager, leading the Cincinnati Reds to an NL pennant in 1961. His
untimely death from cancer following the thrilling conclusion of the 1964 NL
season galvanized the baseball community; the Hutch Award is annually presented
to players exhibiting perseverance in the face of adversity. In 1975 the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was founded in his name in Seattle.
Bill Lange
(1871–1950) – Consistently named alongside
some of the game’s greatest stars (Cobb, Speaker, DiMaggio), and called “the
Willie Mays of his day,” nineteenth-century centerfielder Bill “Little Eva”
Lange was one of the most talented unknown men in baseball history. A five-tool
player with the NL’s Chicago Colts, Lange played a mere seven years (1893‒1899),
but established impeccable credentials (.330 lifetime average, 400 stolen bases,
a 123 career adjusted OPS). Amazingly, in an act inconceivable to 21st-century
Americans, Lange left the game . . . for love. Lange gave it all up at the
tender age of 28 in order to marry the daughter of a San Francisco insurance
mogul who thought baseball an inappropriate career for his future son-in-law.
The marriage soon turned sour, but Lange never played baseball again.
John Young
(b. 1949) – Los Angeles-born pro baseball player and scout who
responded to a lack of baseball resources for urban youth by founding Reviving
Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), a program designed to attract, instruct, and
mentor promising schoolboy athletes. Now administered by Major League Baseball,
the RBI program is active in communities throughout the country; notable RBI
alumni include pitcher C.C. Sabathia, shortstop Jimmy Rollins, and former Dodger
first baseman James Loney.
A complete list of all fifty candidates for the
2013 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, 2013. To be eligible to vote, all
persons must have their minimum $25.00 annual membership dues paid as of March
31, 2013.
The three new inductees will be announced in May, with the Induction Day
ceremony scheduled for Sunday, July 21, 2013 in Pasadena, California. In
addition to the presentation of plaques to the 2013 inductees, this year’s
ceremony will honor the recipients of the 2013 Hilda Award (named in memory of
Hilda Chester and acknowledging a baseball fan’s exceptional devotion to the
game) and the 2013 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 |
2013 Candidates |
|
1. Eliot Asinof (10) | 26. Effa Manley (15) |
2. Sy Berger (3) | 27. Conrado Marrero (4) |
3. Steve Bilko (2) | 28. Dr. Mike Marshall (8) |
4. Chet Brewer (14) | 29. Tug McGraw (10) |
5. Charlie Brown (6) | 30. Fred Merkle (7) |
6. Jefferson Burdick (4) | 31. Manny Mota (6) |
7. Glenn Burke (6) | 32. David N. Mullany (New!) |
8. Bert Campaneris (2) | 33. Hideo Nomo (2) |
9. Jose Canseco (2) | 34. Lefty O’Doul (2) |
10. Octavius V. Catto (New!) | 35. Joe Pepitone (3) |
11. Rocky Calavito (New!) | 36. Phil Pote (11) |
12. Charles M. Conlon (12) | 37. Vic Power (5) |
13. Warren Cromartie (New!) | 38. Curtis Pride (3) |
14. Dizzy Dean (13) | 39. Dan Quisenberry (7) |
15. Carlos Delgado (New!) | 40. Pete Reiser (New!) |
16. Hector Espino (4) | 41. J.R. Richard (14) |
17. Eddie Feigner (13) | 42. Annie Savoy (3) |
18. Lisa Fernandez (13) | 43. Rusty Staub (8) |
19. Charlie Finley (3) | 44. Toni Stone (2) |
20. Rube Foster (15) | 45. Fay Vincent (12) |
21. Ernie Harwell (10) | 46. Rube Waddell (15) |
22. Fred Hutchinson (New!) | 47. Christy Walsh (New!) |
23. Bo Jackson (New!) | 48. John Montgomery Ward (7) |
24. Bill Lange (New!) | 49. John Young (New!) |
25. Annabelle Lee (2) | 50. Don Zimmer (9) |