Most fans of baseball probably assume that the Baseball Hall of Fame is owned and operated by Major League Baseball. It is not. It’s controlled by the Clark family and a Board of Trustees. The only thing MLB does is provide the memorabilia. It’s time that baseball takes the reins from this small aristocratic club in the interest of fans and for the good of the game.
Today’s highly circulating story about the seven page letter sent to baseball’s Hall of Fame from Pete Rose requesting “inclusion” on the ballot for election, is a indication that Rose, now 75, will never give up the fight to get what he believes he has learned.
But it’s really about more than that. It’s about a imbalance of power between the Hall and Major League Baseball. Unbeknownst to most fans of baseball, the Baseball Hall of Fame operates as a exclusive club that has no legal ties to MLB. In fact, the HOF does not only belong to the people, it doesn’t even belong to baseball.
Manfred Again Disqualifies Rose
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Last December, when Commisioner Manfred (below) denied Pete Rose his reinstatement to baseball, he repeatedly made the point that his decision was completely separate from Rose’s consideration for the Hall of Fame. Like you perhaps, I kind of scratched my head a little bit on that one. But Manfred is correct.
A bit of history will clarify. In a article that appeared in How Stuff Works, the Hall was largely the creation of Stephen Clark, a resident of Cooperstown, New York. Clark, who was a heir to the Singer Sewing Machines fortune, came into possession of a ball supposedly used by Abner Doubleday. He placed it in a display case at a local village club. That was in 1934.
Later, according to the same story, “Clark spent $44,000 of his own money — about half the original construction cost — to help convert the village gym into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and served 21 years as its first president. Filling the hall was left to baseball.”
Since then, the Hall of Fame has remained under the auspices of the Clark’s. The family’s current matriarch is Jane Forbes (yes that Forbes) Clark who can be seen for five minutes a year when ESPN televises the Induction Ceremony in July and she gives the “welcoming” address. After that, she and her trustees disappear behind a wall not to be seen or heard from again until the following July.
Look, I happen to believe that Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame hands down. The Hall is based on numbers and Rose has one of the biggest numbers ever amassed over a career, 4356 hits. And if Ted Williams, who once spit at a fan, and Ty Cobb, who was a despicable excuse for a human being, can be in the Hall, then I just can’t understand why a man who bet on a game he wasn’t even playing in is being excluded. Nevertheless, he should at least be on the ballot.
MLB Should Run The Hall of Fame
The rule established by Clark, Inc. states that any player on MLB’s “restricted list” (which Rose is) is ineligible to be considered for election. If anything, life teaches us that there are exceptions to every rule. But apparently, not this one.
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Rose’s letter is more than likely a exercise in futility. But that’s not the point. The salient point is that Major League Baseball, which in theory at least, is responsible for answering to its fans as well as maintaining the integrity of the game, should have the final say about the rules governing the Hall of Fame. And not a small group of aristocrats in Cooperstown, New York.