Minnie Minoso elected to Baseball Hall of FameDaryl Van Schouwenon December 5, 2021 at 11:44 pm

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cuban Comet, “Mr. White Sox” led way in voting from Golden Days Era committee

Minnie Minoso, baseball’s first Black Latino player and one of the most exciting players in White Sox history, is a Hall of Famer.

A trailblazer known as “Mr. White Sox” and the “Cuban Comet,” Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso, who died in 2015, was elected Sunday. along with former Sox Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva and Gil Hodges by the Golden Days Era committee.

Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil were elected by the Early Baseball Era Committee, which considered a 10-person ballot of candidates whose primary contribution the game came prior to 1950.

Minoso was a nine-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner as an outfielder (he also played third base) in 17 seasons and 1,835 career games with the Indians, White Sox, Cardinals and Senators. Minoso also played three seasons in the Negro Leagues.

Twelve votes (75 percent) were needed to get in, and Minoso led the way with 14, with Hodges, Kaat and Oliva getting 12 each. Former Sox first baseman Dick Allen fell one vote shy with 11 votes.

Roger Maris, Billy Pierce, Maury Wills, Ken Boyer and manager Danny Murtaugh were also on the ballot. The Golden Days Era Committee considers candidates whose primary contribution to the game came from 1950-69. Of the group, Kaat, Oliva and Wills are living.

Candidates required 75 percent from the 16-member Golden Days Era Committee comprised of Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Fergie Jenkins, Mike Schmidt, John Schuerholz, Bud Selig, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre; major league executives Al Avila, Bill DeWitt, Ken Kendrick, Kim Ng and Tony Reagins; and veteran media members/historians Adrian Burgos Jr., Steve Hirdt, Jaime Jarrin and Jack O’Connell.

Minoso received the most support.

“The one thing he really should get credit for and doesn’t is he’s a Black Latino pioneer,” baseball historian, statistician and author Don Zminda told the Sun-Times in May. “He was the first Black Latin player in major league baseball and he doesn’t get credit for that.”

“He was our Jackie Robinson,” Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda famously said.

Like Robinson, Minoso was not just a pioneer but a skilled, exciting player.

“As a pioneer he should be recognized,” Zminda said, “but he was a tremendous player.”

From 1951-60, Minoso was second among American League players in Baseball Reference wins above replacement behind Mickey Mantle, and ahead of Ted Williams, Nellie Fox and Yogi Berra. Only Mantle scored more runs, only Fox had more hits, only Mantle and Yogi Berra had more RBI and only Luis Aparicio had more stolen bases during that period.

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