The numbers say Minnie's a Hall of Famer

A statistical revolution has swept through baseball in the past decade, and in its wake, we’ve discovered that Minnie Minoso is a shoo-in for the game’s Hall of Fame. Now if only someone would inform the Hall of Fame’s voters of the revolution.
Most fans learned to measure the ability of a baseball player by reading box scores and the backs of bubble gum cards. But a big change in the way baseball statistics are viewed — at least partly inspired by the success of the 2003 book, “Moneyball” — has dramatically changed the way the players are evaluated today in the major and minor leagues.
Once upon a time, home runs, batting average and runs batted in (RBIs) were viewed as benchmarks of a player’s talent. Today, a complex array of statistical formulas that would make a math teacher dizzy accomplish the same task, but in a much more efficient and accurate way.
For the sake of this article, though, I will use just one relatively easy-to-digest formula — “OPS.” My aim is to illustrate why Minoso was a much better player than most of us realize and why he should immediately (he’s in his mid-80s for Christ’s sake!) be enshrined in Cooperstown alongside baseball’s greatest heroes.
OPS is simply the sum of two very useful statistics, on-base average and slugging average. It gives relatively equal weight to two very important measurements of a player’s talent — his ability to get on base and his ability to hit with power.
George Sisler is in the Hall of Fame because he has a dazzling lifetime .340 batting average. But his on-base average is just 39 points higher at .379, a sure sign that he rarely saw a pitch he didn’t like. Minoso, on the other hand, has only a .298 career batting average. But he also boasts a .389 on-base average, evidence that he was a player with a keen batting eye who made the pitcher work for every out.
Just as on-base average is more useful than batting average, slugging average, because it places equal value on doubles, triples and home runs, is more useful for determining a player’s power than home runs, which often come at the expense of a player’s complete game.
Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski hit 452 home runs in his career, but his lifetime slugging average is just .462. Although Minnie hit just 186 home runs (Playing mostly in spacious Comiskey Park, no less), he finished with a slugging average of .459, just three points less than the Boston Red Sox icon.
A .459 slugging average is nothing special. But combine it with his sterling .389 on-base average and Minoso has an impressive OPS of .848.
Here’s a list of Hall of Famers who were inducted into Cooperstown based primarily on their hitting ability whose career OPS is less than Minoso’s — Sisler, Yastrzemski, Robert Clemente, Ernie Banks, Reggie Jackson, Tony Lazzeri, Enos Slaughter, Richie Ashburn, Dave Winfield, Edd Roush, Ernie Lombardi, Tony Perez, Joe Sewell, George “Highpockets” Kelly and Lloyd Waner. I left off the list all shortstops, third basemen, second basemen and catchers, with the exception of Lombardi, who would have been a designated hitter if such a thing existed when he played. And I also left off all players who played the majority of their careers before 1920, when today’s live ball was introduced. The complete list of Hall of Famers who hitting ability was less than Minoso’s is too lengthy to mention.
In conclusion, recent breakthroughs in the statistical analysis of baseball players prove that Minoso was just as good an offensive player (or defensive player, for that matter) as Yastrzemski, Clemente and Banks — three players whose worthiness in Cooperstown has never been called into question. This is why baseball stats guru Bill James calls Minoso baseball’s best eligible player who is not in the Hall of Fame.
Add the indisputable fact that Minoso was a pioneer (he was baseball’s first Latin American star and the first black major league player in Chicago) who lost several of his prime seasons to baseball’s color barrier and there is simply no argument justifying the Hall of Fame’s ongoing exclusion of a truly great player.

Baseball's greatest unsung treasure

When Minnie took the American League by storm in 1951, the league had never seen anybody quite like him. Like Willie Mays — who coincidentally made his debut the same season with the New York Giants in the National League, the "Cuban Comet" was blessed with not only an abundance of power, speed and a great glove, but he played the game with confidence, aggressiveness, flair and sense that he could do just about anything on a baseball field.

While Mays had just turned 20 when he was brought up by the Giants, Minnie was a seasoned veteran by 1951. Though nobody is quite sure how old he was when he arrived in the major leagues, he was somewhere between 25 and 28 years old. More significantly, he had been knocking the living daylights out of baseballs since at least 1945 when — at roughly same age when Mays was called up to the Giants — he made his debut with the New York Cuban Giants of the Negro Leagues.

Because of the color of his skin, Minnie’s arrival in the major leagues was delayed for at least several seasons. This is important to note because one of the chief arguments against Minoso’s induction into Cooperstown is that he didn’t play long enough. The irony, though, is that between 1945 and 2003, Minnie likely played as many games as anybody in baseball history.

The long road to the big leagues

Minnie’s career path was hardly conventional and doesn’t fit neatly on the back of a bubble gum card. He played four years (1945-1948) in the Negro Leagues, where — as a third baseman — he quickly established himself as the leadoff hitter on Cubans, which won the Negro League World Series in 1947 after falling just short of the crown in 1946. He also played in Negro League all-star games in 1947 and 1948.

In 1946, Minnie reportedly had a tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s not surprising that the Cardinals chose not to sign him — a year later, a group of the team’s players tried to organize a strike against Jackie Robinson playing in the National League. It would be another eight years before the Cardinals’ color barrier was broken.

Minnie, meanwhile, was signed by the Cleveland Indians in 1948. Bill Veeck, the innovative and open-minded owner of the Tribe, was determined to sign African-American players, despite the fact that there was even more resistance to the idea in the American League than there was in the National League. The previous season, Veeck had integrated the junior circuit by signing outfielder Larry Doby and pitcher Satchel Paige. It was no coincidence that the Indians won their first World Series that year since 1920.

Minnie played briefly in the minor leagues in 1948, batting .525 for the Dayton of the Central League in just 11 games. For the next two seasons, he tore up the Pacific Coast League, which was generally considered the most competitive of all minor leagues. In 1949, he hit .297 and smacked 22 homers, while in 1950, he batted .339, smashed 20 home runs, stole 30 bases, scored 130 runs and knocked in 115 runs.

Unfortunately for Minnie, Veeck was forced to sell the Indians in 1949 to pay for a divorce settlement. It is likely he would have been brought up to the Indians in 1949 or 1950 had Veeck still been calling shots. But baseball’s color barrier died a slow death, so he played for the San Diego Padres of the PCL for two years.

Minnie gets his chance

Finally, Minnie got his big break early in the 1951 season when the White Sox acquired him from the Indians’ organization as part of a three-way trade that also involved the Philadelphia A’s. He became the first black player to ever wear a jersey for a Chicago team — and he was a resounding success on the field, hitting .324 in his debut and finishing second in the race for the batting title. Over the next seven years, he was the catalyst for an exciting White Sox team that was arguably the city’s best since the days of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the infamous Black Sox. And not only did Minnie emerge as one of baseball's best players, but his brilliant smile and engaging personality lit up the Windy City for much of the next decade.

When the Indians were offered the White Sox future Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn and gifted outfielder Al Smith for Minoso after the 1957 season, the deal was too good for Chicago to pass up. So for the next two seasons, Minnie continued his assault on American League pitching in Cleveland. Sadly, he missed out on being part of the 1959 White Sox, which won the team's first pennant since 1919.

Veeck reacquired the White Sox in 1959 and returned Minnie back to the fold the following season. Veeck’s admiration for Minnie was so great that he even presented Minnie with a championship ring for the 1959 season. So in 1960 and 1961, the veteran outfielder and leadoff hitter continued to torment American League hurlers. But in 1961, Veeck again sold his interest in the White Sox, so it came as no surprise that Minnie was traded again after the season — this time to the Cardinals, the same team that had offered him a tryout 16 seasons earlier.

The end of Minnie’s reign as one of baseball best players came quickly in 1962. In early May, he suffered a fractured skull and broken wrist when he crashed into a wall chasing down a triple by Duke Snider. He returned to the lineup in July, but a month later his season ended when a pitch broke his forearm. He was never the same player afterwards, and his major league career was, it seemed, over by 1964.

South of border and back again

Minnie, though, was hardly done with baseball. After a brief spell in the minors, he traveled south to Mexico, where he became one of that country’s baseball icons. Although records are spotty, he played nine years south of border as a first baseman, hitting as high as .360. In his final season, 1973, he managed to hit 12 home runs and drive in 83 runs. He was somewhere between 47 and 50.

Three years later, with Veeck again at the helm of the White Sox, Minnie returned to Chicago’s South Side. He was hired as a coach, but he made a brief appearance as a designated hitter and even got a base hit (I was watching the game on television at the time), making him arguably the oldest player to ever do so, depending on his real age. He made another brief appearance in 1980 (a record-tying fifth decade), which led to him being banned from organized baseball, presumably, for being too old.

Even the ban couldn’t stop Minnie from playing. In 1993 and 2003 he made pinch hit appearances for the independent St. Paul Saints. In his final trip to the plate, he managed to work the pitcher for a walk — a fitting conslusion to a career that was distinguished by his extraordinary ability to get on base.

Minnie’s career by the numbers

At various points in his career, Minoso led his league in hits (once), total bases (once), doubles (once), triples (3 times), sacrifice flies (twice), stolen bases (3 times) and hit-by-pitches (an amazing 10 times!). He was also came in second place (one time each) for batting average, on-base average, OPS, slugging average, RBIs, doubles, extra base hits and three times was the runner-up in stolen bases. He also won three gold gloves (the award was created late in his career).

While Minnie’s home run total of 186 appears relatively modest compared to many Hall of Famers, consider the fact that he played the bulk of his career in spacious Comiskey Park, the most pitching-friendly stadium in the majors. In fact, at one point in his career, he was the White Sox all-time home run leader. Imagine how many homers he would have hit in Ebbets Field.

And by the way, he was baseball's first star who was both African-American and Latino (which might explain why he was hit by more pitches than any player who came before him).

According to Bill James, whose statistical analysis has revolutionized baseball, Minnie Minoso is the best baseball player who is eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame who has not been selected. A comparative statistical analysis illustrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a better player than many in the Hall of Fame — just compare his statistics to those of three of his teammates who have been inducted — Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Early Wynn — as well as Richie Ashburn, a Hall of Fame leadoff hitter who played during the same era. Minnie was no less a player than any of the four. And like Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Monte Irvin and Larry Doby, he was a true pioneer who was forced to overcome much prejudice and adversity on his way to baseball stardom.

What if Minnie never makes it to Cooperstown?

While some former players have expressed their bitterness or resentment over being shunned by those who elect Hall of Famers, Minnie has always taken the high road and confronted the subject with grace and humility.

"If it's meant to be, it's meant to be," Minnie said. "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 most to me."

Introduction

According to Bill James, whose statistical analysis has revolutionized baseball, Minnie Minoso is the best baseball player who is eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame who has not been selected. Not only that, but he was clearly a better player than many already inducted. Unlike Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, Minoso is not banned from Cooperstown. But he might as well be, based upon the reception he has received from the Hall of Fame's gate keepers. This blog is dedicated to Minnie and the hope that one day his mark on the game will be truly appreciated ...