A Flood of New Hall of Famers, Followed by a Grinding Halt

Fifteen years ago, the Baseball Hall of Fame inducted 17 people from the Negro leagues. The election came with some controversy and has been followed by silence.

They gathered in a conference room in Vero Beach, Fla., a 12-person committee that would be both judge and jury. The weight of their task — considering the Hall of Fame worthiness of 39 Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues players, managers, and executives — was perhaps greater than any they had carried in their careers. “They had a speaker in the middle of the table, and Frank Robinson was brought on to talk to us,” said Leslie Heaphy, a professor of history at Kent State University, the founding editor of the Black Ball journal, and the only woman appointed to the Hall’s Special Committee on African-American Baseball. “He reminded us of how important this was, that we really had to think about what we were doing, and that the Hall of Fame isn’t just for anybody.” “I thought ‘Oh my god, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done,’ and ‘Oh my god, this is a big responsibility,’” Heaphy added. “I had both those thoughts at the same time.”