The baseball season might be over, but that means the Baseball Hall of Fame season has begun.

This morning, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced the eight-man Contemporary Ballot, featuring four managers and four executives for consideration for the Class of 2026.

Here are the candidates:

Sandy Alderson: Oakland Athletics General Manager 1983-97, MLB Executive Vice President 1998-2005, San Diego Padres CEO 2005-09 & New York Mets General Manager 2011-18 & President 2021-23.  A member of the Athletics Hall of Fame, Alderson built a team that won three straight American League Pennants (1988-89), and won it all in 1989.  He also oversaw postseason berths for San Diego and the New York Mets, including a National League pennant in 2015.

Dusty Baker: San Francisco Giants 1993-2002, Chicago Cubs 2003-06, Cincinnati Reds 2008-13, Washington Nationals 2016-17 & Houston Astros 2020-23.  A 19-year vet and two-time All-Star as a player, Baker won three Manager of the Year Awards (and was the runner-up three other times.  He guided his teams to thirteen postseasons and took the Astros to a World Series win in 2022.  Overall, he boasts a record of 2,183 and 1,862.

Bruce Bochy: San Diego Padres 1995-2006, San Francisco Giants 2007-19 & Texas Rangers 2023-25.  Bochy brings a loaded resume: over his 28 years as a manager, he won four World Series titles (2010, 2012 & 2014 with San Francisco, and 2023 with Texas), reached the postseason nine times, and won six division titles.  He also won the 1996 NL Manager of the Year Award and finished in the top three six other times.  Bochy’s overall record as a Manager is 2,252 and 2,266.

Joe Maddon: California Angels/Anaheim Angels/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Coach) 1994-2005, Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays 2006-14, Chicago Cubs 2015-19 & Los Angeles Angels 2020-22.  Maddon won a World Series as a coach with the Angels in 2002, and as a manager led his teams to eight postseasons, including the Chicago Cubs’ historic 2016 World Series win.  A three-time Manager of the Year, Maddon has an overall record of 1,382 and 1,216.

Lou Piniella: New York Yankees 1986-87 & 1988, Cincinnati Reds 1990-92, Seattle Mariners 1993-2002, Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2003-05 & Chicago Cubs 2007-10.   Piniella played 18 seasons in the Majors and enjoyed his best success as a manager with Cincinnati, which he guided to a World Series title in 1990.  A three-time Manager of the Year, Piniella also made history by leading the Mariners to a record 116-win year in 2001.  His managerial record is 1,835 wins and 1,712 losses.

Brian Sabean: New York Yankees 1985 Scout, 1986-89 Director of Scouting & 1990-92 Vice President of Player Development and Scouting, San Francisco Giants, Vice President of Scouting 1993-96, General Manager 1997-2014 & 2015-22 Executive, New York Yankees Executive Advisor to the General Manager 2023-26.  A scout who helped draft Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada to the Yankees, Sabean was an executive for 26 years with the San Francisco Giants, where his work helped them win three World Series titles.

Ted Turner: Atlanta Braves Owner 1976-2007.  Turner bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976 and put them on his WTBS Superstation, raising their profile and reshaping televised baseball.  Under his ownership, the Braves won five National League Pennants and the World Series in 1995.

Bill White: National League President 1989-94.  White was an eight-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glove winner who later became National League President, marking the first time an African-American served in that capacity.  He received the 2026 Buck O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.

The results will be announced at 8 PM EST on December 3.

We here at notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the eight finalists.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has announced that Bill White will be the 2026 recipient of the Buck O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.

White will be honored as part of the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25 in Cooperstown, New York.

White was an eight-time All-Star and six-time Gold Glove winner who spent the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he helped them win the 1964 World Series.  After his playing career, White broadcast New York Yankees games for 18 seasons, but left that when the opportunity arose to become the President of the National League.  White served in that capacity from 1989 to 1994 and oversaw the expansion that added the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins.

White becomes the seventh winner of the Buck O’Neil Award.  The previous winners were O’Neill (2008), Roland Hemond (2011), Joe Garagiola (2014), Rachel Robinson (2017), David Montgomery (2020), and Carl Erskine (2023).

We here at Notinhalloffame would like to congratulate Bill White for his impending honor.

Hall of Fame season continues with the Baseball Hall’s announcement of the eight names on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for Managers/Executives/Umpires.  The Committee will meet on December 3 at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, and the results will be shared that night at 7:30 on MLB Tonight on the MLB Network.

To enter the Hall, the candidate must receive 75 percent of the 16-person group. 

Here are the nominees:

Cito Gaston:  Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays for 12 seasons, and he helmed to back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993.  Making history as the first African-American Manager to win a World Series, Gaston has a career record of 894-837, and is a member of the Toronto Blue Jays Level of Excellence.

Davey Johnson:  Johnson managed 17 seasons in the Majors, with his career-highlight leading the New York Mets to a 1986 World Series Championship.  Johnson won two Manager of the Year Awards (1997 & 2012) and had a record of 1,372-1,071.

Jim Leyland:  Leyland is a three-time Manager of the Year (1990, 1992 & 2006), and led the Florida Marlins to their improbable 1997 World Series title.  With a career record of 1,769-1,728 and helmed the United States to victory in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

Ed Montague:  Montague served as an Umpire from 1974 to 2009 and was the Crew Chief in four World Series.

Hank Peters:  Peters worked 42 years as a Baseball Executive, first becoming a General Manager with the Kansas City Athletics helping them build their dynasty.  He would later serve as the GM in Baltimore, where he constructed their 1983 Championship squad.  He later rebuilt the Cleveland Indians into a power in the 90s.

Lou Piniella:  A 23-year veteran as a Manager, Piniella brought Cincinnati a World Series in 1990, and was a three-time Manager of the Year (1995, 2001 & 2008).  He had a lifetime record of 1,835-1,712.

Joe West: West umpired from 1976 to 2021, officiating a record 43 years and 5,460 Games.  He worked six World Series and ten League Championship Series.

Bill White:  White was the first African American President of a League, having served in that capacity in the NL from 1989 to 1994.

You know that we will be paying attention December 3!

Bill White began his career with the New York Giants in 1956m, but it was not until he made it to St. Louis in 1959 where his career began to take off.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  Eventually, we plan to do that for the major colleges in the NCAA.  As such, it is news to us that the St. Louis Cardinals has announced that Tom Herr, John Tudor and Bill White were chosen for their franchise Hall of Fame.

Herr and Tudor were elected via the fan vote.  They beat out Keith Hernandez, Edgar Renteria, Steve Carlton, Lee Smith and Matt Morris to earn this honor.  White entered by the Red Ribbon Panel, which was created for players from an earlier era.

Tom Herr, Second Base (1979-88).  Herr was a member of the Cardinals 1982 World Series Championship Team, and he collected 1,021 for the franchise.  His best season was in 1985, where he was an All-Star, was fifth in MVP voting and batted .303 with 110 Runs Batted In.  While he was never a Gold Glove winner, he was a good fielder and had a Defensive bWAR of 4.0 for St. Louis.

John Tudor, Pitcher (1985-88 & 1990).  After the 1984 season, John Tudor was traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to St. Louis, and the southpaw proceeded to have the best season of his career.  Tudor finished second in Cy Young voting after going 21-8 with a 1.93 ERA and a National League leading 0.938 WHIP.  Tudor was a huge reason that the Cardinals won the Pennant, and Tudor won his first two starts, losing the third against Kansas City.  Tudor had a 62-26 record for the Redbirds.

Bill White, First Base (1959-65 & 1969).  An All-Star in five of his years in St. Louis, White was a member of 1964 World Series Championship Teams.  Playing at First Base, White was considered one of the best defensive players at that position, and he won six of his seven Gold Gloves as a Cardinal.  White had two top-ten MVP finishes and as a Cardinal had 1,241 Hits, 140 Home Runs and a .298 Batting Average.

The Cardinals Hall of Fame came into existence in 2014, and has quickly become one of the best franchise-run Halls of Fame.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to the impending members of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.

Some of the most meaningful legacies in baseball history are created by men who didn't originally see the sport as their lifelong passion, but rather as an unexpected turn in their journeys. Bill White was a talented pre-med student at Hiram College, aiming for medical school when a simple tryout suddenly changed everything. Leo Durocher, known for knocking down giants, was so captivated by White’s natural athletic skill that he signed him immediately. As one of the first Black players to navigate the highly segregated Carolina League in the early 1950s, White faced significant racial challenges but handled them with remarkable dignity. Even after earning a spot on the major-league team, a period in the U.S. Army and the rise of Willie McCovey made him feel blocked in San Francisco. Recognizing his exceptional talent, the St. Louis Cardinals made their move, trading for White in March 1959 and welcoming him into their main team right away.

Though the Cardinals initially experimented with White in the outfield to accommodate Stan Musial, he permanently seized the first-base bag by 1960 and instantly set a new gold standard for defensive excellence in the National League. For the next six seasons, White put on an absolute clinic at the cold corner, sweeping six consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards in a Redbird uniform. He wasn’t just a defensive vacuum; he was an exceptionally steady metronome at the plate. Across his seven consecutive seasons as a core pillar in St. Louis, White never failed to reach 150 hits in a season, and he cleared the elusive .300 batting average four separate times.

Between 1961 and 1965, he demonstrated excellent power hitting in the middle of the lineup, achieving five consecutive seasons with 20 or more home runs. His most outstanding season was in 1963 when he set personal bests with 200 hits, 27 home runs, and led the league with 109 RBIs, showcasing a remarkable performance.

White’s exceptional production and elite defensive skills were the cornerstone of the legendary 1964 world championship team. During that summer, he earned one of his five All-Star selections as a Cardinal, amassing 191 hits and 102 RBIs. His solid infield defense was vital in leading St. Louis to a dramatic seven-game victory in the Fall Classic against the New York Yankees.

Although his playing career ended after a brief, late-career stint in 1969, White’s influence on baseball grew into groundbreaking and historic realms. Known for his clear, composed style and sharp baseball intellect, he broke racial barriers by becoming the first African-American play-by-play announcer for the Yankees in 1971. He reached the top of the sport's executive ranks in 1989, making history again as the first person of color to serve as President of the National League.

White finished his St. Louis career with 1,241 hits, 140 home runs, 651 RBIs, and a.298 average over 1,046 games. His notable impact was recognized in 2020 when he was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.

Bill White got his start late in the National Hockey League like so many in the late 1960’s as he was one of the many who when the 1967 expanded from six to twelve teams would receive an opportunity and at age 28 he debuted for the Los Angeles Kings where he showed off an intelligent defensive game, but it was when he was traded to Chicago that his game reached the next level. 

The NHL expansion sure was a friend to Bill White, as at the age of 28, he found a spot with the Los Angeles Kings and would emerge as their top blueliner.  White’s skills would increase into his 30s, and a trade to the Chicago Blackhawks would see him make three consecutive Second Team All-Stars while also being voted third in Norris Trophy voting each time.  He also went to six All-Star Games.