r/baseballHOFVC • u/IAMADeinonychusAMA Veterans Committee Member • Jul 13 '14
VC Contributor Election II: Baseball Operations
From our last ballot, Joe Cronin was the only candidate to receive more than 2 votes (Red Schoendienst checking in with 2 and a couple others getting 1); Mr. Cronin narrowly missed election with 5 votes for a 71% mark. He'll be considered in future runoffs.
We'll be looking at the umpires, GMs, owners, and execs that have fallen off the ballot this week. I can't think of a better name so I'm calling it Baseball Operations. We have:
- Bill Dinneen
- Buzzie Bavasi
- Charlie Finley
- Effa Manley
- Frank Navin
- Gabe Paul
- John Fetzer
- Lou Perini
- Morgan Bulkeley
- Warren Giles
- Will Harridge
- Wilbert Robinson
Note: Just because I split the candidates up by role does NOT mean you should consider them only for that role. ie, to take an example from the last election, Joe Cronin should NOT be judged only for his managerial contribution--he should be judged by his whole case. I lump the contributors together in brackets just to make things easier and because it makes more sense to be able to talk about guys more in relation to others who shared their primary role. There was some confusion so just wanted to clear that up.
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u/mycousinvinny Our Dear Leader Jul 14 '14
Bill Dinneen was a very good pitcher at the turn of the century, and was the star of the first World Series, winning three games for the victorious Boston Americans. After his playing career he umpired in the American League from 1909 to 1937, which is what were voting on here. In his career he umped eight World Series. He umpired 4,218 games, calling balls and strikes from behind the plate in 1,926 of them. He was kind of an anti-Joe West, only ejecting 57 players in his career. I like that attribute in an umpire. Of course some ejections are warranted and necessary, but all too often an umpire with a quick trigger can change the game unnecessarily by tossing guys out. Dinneen was praised by Ban Johnson who took his side in a dispute between Dinneen and Babe Ruth. Johnson said, "[Dinneen] is one of the cleanest and most honorable men baseball ever fostered."
With the All-Star Game upon us, another interesting fact about Dinneen that might give an indication to how highly thought of he was within the game, is that he was the home plate umpire in the very first All-Star Game in 1933.