Yankees on the 2024 Contemporary Baseball Era HoF Ballot
The Baseball Hall of Fame recently announced the candidates that will be included on the 2024 ballot for the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee to consider. The eight-person ballot is comprised of those who contributed to baseball as a manager, executive, or umpire since 1980. Of those eight, two candidates have strong ties to the Yankees.
As is usually the case with these Veterans Committees, it will be difficult for any of the eight to be voted in since the electorate will be limited to just four votes, and 75% of that vote will be needed for election. Obviously, I'll be pulling for the gentlemen detailed below when the results are announced on December 3rd.
Lou Piniella
Sweet Lou spent 15 years of his long baseball career as a Yankee in some way, shape or form. A former Rookie of the Year and All-Star with the Royals, Piniella was traded to the Yankees prior to the 1974 season. For the next 11 years he was a key contributor to the Yankees mainly in a hybrid fourth outfielder/designated hitter role. Despite never being a true star with the Yankees, he was as recognizable as anyone on the Bronx Zoo teams thanks to his steady bat, hard-nosed attitude, and of course, his association with a winning brand of baseball.
It was no surprise, then, that Piniella was hired as the Yankees' hitting coach even before he officially retired as a player in 1984. After some success in that role, he was hired as manager for the 1986 and '87 seasons where he led solid teams that ultimately fell short of the playoffs. In 1988 he was promoted to general manager to make room for Billy Martin to take over as manager (again). He found that a front office position was too far removed from the field and stepped down that May, only to be re-hired as manager (again) when Martin was fired by George Steinbrenner for the fifth and final time. After a disappointing stretch run in '88, Piniella would move on from the Yankees.
Lou would go on to manage for another 20 big league seasons, starting with a three-year stint in Cincinnati. In 1990 he would pilot the Reds to a shocking World Series sweep over the 103-win Oakland A's. That would serve as the apex of his managerial career. He would never reach the World Series again.
That's not to say that the balance of Piniella's career was uneventful. In 1993 he signed on as manager of the upstart Seattle Mariners, featuring one of the games brightest young stars in Ken Griffey, Jr. It took just two years for that team to stun the baseball world by winning the 1995 AL Division Series after going down 2-0 in a best-of-five. It was extra sweet for Lou as he broke the Yankees' hearts in the process. Revenge for the Yankees was even sweeter a few years later when they defeated Piniella's Mariners in both the 2000 and 2001 ALCS. However, Piniella would tie a record by winning 116 games during the regular season in 2001. He gladly would have traded a few of those wins for another trip to the Fall Classic, but it was a significant acheivement nonetheless.
As Piniella approached his 60th birthday, the Tampa native began to feel homesick and took a job with the Devil Rays. His hope was to turn around a franchise that had yet to win even 70 games in a season up to that point. He did get them over that hump, winning exactly 70 games in 2004, but that was the extent of his success in Tampa. Unless you also want to count the bizarre scenario where he dyed his hair after a three-game winning streak.
Looking for one last feather in his cap, Piniella was named manager of the Chicago Cubs in 2007. The Cubs took the NL Central crown in each of his first two seasons on the job - including a 97-win campaign in 2008 that saw Piniella win his third Manager of the Year award. Yet they were swept in the first round of the playoffs both times. The club was clearly on the downswing after that and at 66 years old, Sweet Lou retired for good as a manager before the close of the 2010 season.
When you combine his time as a player, coach, manager, genral manager, consultant, and broadcaster, Piniella has dedicated nealry 60 years of his life to baseball. Even if he doesn't deserve enshrinement based on his résumé in any one of those positions, he would certainly deserve a lifetime acheivement award if such a thing existed in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Luckily for him, recent veterans committees have agreed. The last time he appeared on a ballot in 2018 as part of the Today's Game Era Committee, he fell just one vote shy of the 12 needed for election. We'll likely see him get that vote and a ticket to Cooperstown this year.
Bill White
I've written before about how much I loved hearing Phil Rizzuto call Yankee games. This isn't exactly a hot take. Generations of Yankee fans grew up to the sound of the Scooter serving as the soundtrack for the Yankees and love him just as much as I do. During Phil's golden years of broadcasting, Bill White was right there with him as his straight man. From 1971 to 1988 White called Yankee games on both TV and radio, developing a chemistry with Rizzuto that was as close to perfection as a baseball broadcasting pair can get. (Nb: Vin Scully's solo act was actual perfection.)
Considering his lack of any connection to the Yankees prior to joining their broadcast booth, White's long, successful run there stands as a testament to his quality as an announcer. His wealth of baseball knowledge stood for itself, but he also had the ability to take Rizzuto's tangents in stride and keep the action moving without getting in the way. Even more impressive, he did this as the first black announcer to broadcast games regularly for a major league sports team, and in the hotbed of New York City nonetheless. But then again, breaking new ground was something of a trademark for Bill White.
In 1953, White became just the second black minor leaguer to play in the Carolina League, which served as a springboard to a very successful major league career. In 13 seasons - mostly spent with the St. Louis Cardinals - he was a slick-fielding, powerful first baseman who could also hit for average. He was named an All-Star in five different seasons, earned seven Gold Gloves and served as a key player on the 1964 World Series champions. He spent the last few years of his playing career with the Phillies and began his broadcasting career in Philadelphia when his playing days were over. There, he became the first black broadcaster to call an NHL game when the Flyers enlisted his services.
During White's run with the Yankees he took part in ABC's broadcast coverage of the Winter Olympics in 1980 and 1984. Showing even further versatility and respect among his peers, White was voted in as president of the National League in 1989 after he retired from broadcasting. Of course, that meant he was the first black person to serve as the president of a major league. He held the position until 1994.
Add it all up and White is probably just as deserving as Piniella is for a lifetime acheivement award. Gaining entrance into the Hall of Fame via a veterans committee would be the next best thing. At 89 years old, it would be nice if White was voted in now, when he's alive and well enough to give his own induction speech. Unfortunately, it's not likely to happen during this voting cycle.
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