A special panel drops the ball on the Latino pioneer and Sox great, writes Phil Rogers
 
Phil Rogers

TAMPA -- Oops.

As expected, a Cuban with strong Chicago ties was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Monday. But as good as we all feel about the late Cristobal Torriente making it, he doesn't exactly have a statue in his honor at U.S. Cellular Field.

The guy who does, the great Minnie Minoso, was left on the outside looking in once again when a special committee of 12 Negro and pre-Negro leagues historians elected 17 new members to the Hall of Fame, including Effa Manley, the first woman member.

This wasn't a slap in the face--mere consideration for the Hall should always be viewed as an honor--but it was a shock. In fact, it probably was a terrible shock to Minoso, who was set to fly to Tampa from Chicago for a news conference Tuesday. And, in this opinion, it was a mistake--another mistake.

On the surface, Minoso seemed to handle the rejection as gracefully--some would say more gracefully--than he did the standard fly ball.

"I know that baseball fans have me in their own Hall of Fame--the one in their hearts," Minoso said in a statement released by the White Sox. "That matters more to me than any official recognition. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and I am truly honored to be considered. I've given my life to baseball, and the game has given me so much. That's what matters the most to me."

In this unusual election, the result of a research project funded by Major League Baseball, candidates needed the usual 75-percent approval for election. One of the committee members, Robert Peterson, voted before his recent death, which allowed the requirement for election to remain at nine of 12 votes.

Minoso, like the extremely visible Buck O'Neil, simply fell short of the nine votes needed. How far? Even if it was just one, that was far enough.

"I believe there was probably more discussion about him before the committee than any other player or executive," said University of Illinois history professor Adrian Burgos, a committee member who advocated Minoso's election. "He brought a lot of things into the discussion. He played the game at a high level, obviously, and he was a transition player from segregation to integration. There should be a lot of honor in being one of the 39 who was [on the ballot]. That speaks very highly to how he is perceived."

But it doesn't get you a plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y., not even as part of a 17-person group--seven Negro leagues players, five-pre Negro leagues players, four Negro leagues executives and one pre-Negro leagues executive--that almost doubles the Negro leagues' representation at the Hall.

Though noted historian Bill James ranks Minoso 10th all-time among left fielders, just ahead of Hall of Famer Billy Williams, no one else seems to know what to make of the White Sox legend. Now we can add this highly credentialed group of historians to the list. Minoso is unique in having been passed over by the Baseball Writers Association of America, the old veterans' committee, the new veterans' committee (composed mostly of Hall of Famers) and now this special Negro leagues committee.

That's 0-for-4 . . . a line the lifetime .298 hitter didn't have too often.

Minoso somehow isn't seen as a pioneer, even though he debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1949, two years behind Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby. Minoso's experience as a Latino pioneer was arguably more difficult than Robinson's because English wasn't his native language.

Minoso's lasting image is as baseball's only "five-decade player," the result of a Bill Veeck gimmick, and his statistics (186 home runs, 1,023 RBIs in 17 seasons) are lacking. But those numbers lie about as badly as any set of statistics ever compiled.

Not only was Minoso 28 when he got to the big leagues to stay, but before he turned 23 he played in what Burgos calls "the sugar-cane leagues" of Cuba, essentially semipro and amateur town teams. It didn't take long for him to get discovered once he got into Cuba's top leagues; he was only 26 when the Indians signed him.

But Minoso lost more years when the Indians kept him in Triple A, apparently not wanting to risk having too many men with dark skin on the field. The 1949 team he debuted on also had Doby, Satchel Paige and Luke Easter.

Minoso played in only 17 big-league games for the Indians before he was traded to the Sox during the 1951 season.

"He crossed the color line, and surely those segregated times affected him," Burgos said. "You can't take away the fact he helped us transition from segregated baseball to integrated baseball. He helped us to understand what an integrated playing field could look like."

In the latest vote, Minoso may have been hurt by having played so long in the major leagues. He was the only one of the 39 candidates who had been on the BBWAA ballot, and some had questioned whether he truly belonged in the group under consideration.

The committee members didn't reveal their votes, and former Commissioner Fay Vincent, the non-voting chairman of the committee, said there was no way to know why Minoso was rejected.

Minoso's disappointment was felt at the White Sox camp in Arizona.

"Of course," answered manager Ozzie Guillen when he was asked if he was disappointed. "It's the only shot he's going to have and I feel for him. I think this man deserves to be there. Obviously he's not. The reason why, I don't care.

"Hopefully, Minnie will know how to handle this and keep working for baseball. Sometimes when things happen, you want to give up. You don't want to be a part of this game. I just hope he keeps working for the White Sox and baseball."

Jerry Reinsdorf echoed Guillen's sentiment.

"Minnie Minoso is a Hall of Famer to the Chicago White Sox," the White Sox chairman said. "His career statistics place him among some of history's best--but numbers aside, Minnie Minoso helped open the door to Major League Baseball for every Latin player on the field today.

"Today is a difficult day for the Minoso family, but we are so proud of Minnie and all he has given to the game of baseball and to each of us in the White Sox organization."

Though Minoso won't be enshrined, the executive who recommended him to the Indians will. Alex Pompez, a Cuban who worked for the New York Giants after the Negro leagues dissolved, is credited with uncovering Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Martin Dihigo and Willie McCovey, among others.

Pompez came to the United States to play for the Cuban Stars when there were two versions of that team, one that played mostly in New York and another that played in Chicago.

Torriente played for the Chicago version before helping the Chicago American Giants win three consecutive Negro National League pennants. His .432 average in 1920 helped him build a .339 lifetime average.

Those were the kinds of numbers that the academics couldn't resist. Like others before them, they just weren't sold on Minoso. That's a shame.

progers@tribune.com