No matter what happens with the Players Vote, we at least know that we have some significant additions to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The Veterans Committee have unanimously selected three great Baseball Managers to the Hall with Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa.
Cox was a very successful Manager with Toronto and Atlanta, winning over 2,500 Games and winning the World Series with the Braves in 1995. As his top two pitchers with Atlanta are on their first year on the ballot (Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine) it could be quite a tribute to Georgia Baseball this upcoming summer.
Joe Torre was on the ballot for a full fifteen years as a player. The former MVP was a multi-time All Star, but as a Major League Manager he captured four World Series rings with the New York Yankees and won over 2,300 games. Torre is the only person to have 2,000 Hits as a player and 2,000 wins as a Manager.
Tony LaRussa won three World Series, first with the Oakland A’s in 1989 and twice in the National League, with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 and 2011. LaRussa was known as being one of the great strategists of the game and won 2,728 as a Major League Baseball Manager.
Although this trio ensures that regardless of what happens with the players vote that we have a solid 2014 Hall of Fame Class, much has been made of Marvin Miller’s failure to get selected on his sixth kick at the can. Miller was the head of the Player’s Association from 1966 to 1981 and actually received less support this year than he did in 2010. Others who failed to get selected were Dave Parker, George Steinbrenner, Dan Quisenberry, Steve Garvey, Billy Martin, Dave Concepcion, Tommy John and Ted Simmons.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place on June 27, 2014. We congratulate the three great Managers on this worthy induction.
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