Irish American Baseball HOF Ballot Announced
New York – With the arrival of St. Patrick's Day, the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame (IABHOF) candidates on the 2018 induction ballot. The candidates include players, managers, broadcasters, and baseball executives. Voting will be conducted by previous inductees and a panel of baseball historians.
Once the votes are tallied, the induction ceremony will be held during the baseball season at Foley's NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.), home of the IABHOF.
“This year's ballot includes members of one of baseball’s great families, a play-by-play team that has worked together for decades and one of the most feared sluggers of the early 2000s,” said Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s Pub, which features one of the country’s most extensive public displays of baseball memorabilia.
The 2018 Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame ballot candidates are:
Former Players
·Adam Dunn: During a 14-year career, Dunn hit 462 home runs, 270 of them with Cincinnati, where he is fourth on the club’s all-time list Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Frank Robinson. Dunn will be inducted in the Reds Hall of Fame this year.
Eric Byrnes: Former member of the Oakland A's and Arizona Diamondbacks, as well as MLB Network contributor.
Media
Tom McCarthy: Play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies' broadcasts.
·Mike Shannon and John Rooney: St. Louis Cardinals radio announcers
Jack O’Connell: BBWAA’s secretary-treasurer who makes “The Call” when a new inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame is selected.
Legends/Hall of Famers
·Roger Connor: Baseball’s all-time home run leader before Babe Ruth
·James Pud" Galvin: Deadball Era pitcher who was baseball’s 300-game winner; ranks 5th in all-time wins
Roger Bresnahan ("The Duke of Tralee"): A great early catcher, he popularized the use of protective equipment in baseball by introducing shin guards, and developed the first batting helmet.
Executives
Charles Stoneham "Chub" Feeney: Served as a front office executive for the Giants and President of the National League in more than 40 years in baseball.
Katie Feeney: A beloved figure who was born into the game, she worked on scheduling, organized news conferences at big events and handled an assortment of logistics for Major League Baseball.
Tom Whaley: Executive Vice-President of the St. Paul Saints, one of Minor League Baseball’s most innovative teams.
Results of the voting will be announced during the regular season. The induction ceremonies will take place this summer at Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.), home of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. Voters include past inductees into the IABHOF and a distinguished panel of baseball historians.
The Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame will also present its annual Pete Caldera-Duke Castiglione “I Didn’t Know He Was Irish” Award, which goes to an honoree whose Irish roots are not widely known.
With the blessing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Foley’s, a popular destination among baseball players, executives, umpires and fans, created the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize players, managers, executives, journalists, and entertainers of Irish descent. Inductees are chosen based on a combination of factors, including impact on the game, popularity on and off the field, contributions to society, connections to the Irish community, and, of course, ancestry.
The game of baseball has welcomed immigrants from its earliest days, when an estimated 30 percent of players claimed Irish heritage. Many of the game’s biggest stars at the turn of the 20th century were Irish immigrants or their descendants, including Michael “King” Kelly, Roger Connor (the home run king before Babe Ruth), Eddie Collins, Big Ed Walsh and managers Connie Mack and John McGraw. Today, major league teams regularly sign players born in Latin America, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere.
Shaun Clancy, an amateur baseball historian, created the Hall after learning about the rich heritage of Irish Americans during the sport's infancy – a legacy overshadowed in recent years by other ethnicities. He decided to celebrate his roots and those who helped make the game great by creating a shrine to Irish Americans in baseball in 2008.
“Starting Nine” and Subsequent Inductees
The “Starting Nine” inductees in 2008 were: the late Mets and Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, Yankee announcer John Flaherty, sportswriter Jeff Horrigan, NY Mets groundskeeper Pete Flynn, retired sluggersMark McGwire and Sean “The Mayor” Casey, Kevin Costner, star of Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, legendary owner-manager Connie Mack, and longtime official scorer and sports columnist Red Foley.
2009 inductees: Walter O’Malley, longtime Brooklyn and LA Dodgers owner; sluggers Steve Garvey andPaul O’Neill, Jim Joyce; veteran sportscaster Vin Scully, and Ed Lucas, a blind reporter who has covered New York baseball for four decades.
2010 inductees: Tim McCarver, veteran TV analyst and former player; Bob Murphy, longtime Mets announcer; Michael “King” Kelly, the game’s first superstar; Yankees GM Brian Cashman; Bill James, famed statistician and an advisor for the Boston Red Sox.
2011 inductees: Nolan Ryan, baseball’s all-time strikeout king, Big Ed Walsh, baseball’s all-time ERA leader, legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw, New York Yankees trainers Gene Monahan and Steve Donohue, "Baseball's Balladeer” Terry Cashman, and Chuck Lennon, former player, coach and lifetime fan of Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball.
2012 inductees: Jimmy Breslin, author of Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?; Tom Kelly, two-time World Series champion manager with the Minnesota Twins; Gene Michael, former player, scout and GM responsible for building the modern Yankee dynasty; "Walpole Joe" Morgan, popular former player, scout and manager of Boston Red Sox; Jeff Nelson, reliever, four-time World Series champion with the Yankees;"Wee Willie" Keeler, Dead Ball era legend; and Mike Roarke, credited with teaching the split-fingered fastball to Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter and a supporter in the development of baseball in Ireland.
2013 inductees: Popular former Mets Rusty Staub and Joe McEwing; longtime owner of the LA DodgersPeter O’Malley; Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Madden of the New York Daily News; and award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe Dan Shaughnessy.
2014 inductees: veteran pitcher David Cone, longtime umpire Tom Gorman, Bill Shea, the driving force in bringing National League baseball back to New York in 1962, veteran baseball photographer Dave Schofield, and Hal McCoy, a longtime beat writer for the Cincinnati Reds.
2015 inductees: Mike Sweeney, five-time All-Star and former captain of the KC Royals; Dave O'Brien ESPN sportscaster and Red Sox radio announcer; Jack McKeon, a two-time NL Manager of Year whose 2003 Marlins won the World Series; Shannon Forde, a longtime member of New York Mets p.r. staff; and minor league baseball team owner Bill Murray.
2016 inductees: Kevin Millar, a member of 2004 Red Sox who helped end Boston’s 86-year World Series title drought; Andy Leonard, recognized as the first native of Ireland (Co. Cavan) to play in the Major Leagues; Dave Wills, play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Rays; Guy Gallagher, visitors’ clubhouse manager for the Tampa Bay Rays and chief communications officer for MLB Clubhouse Managers Association; and Ed Coleman, long-time WFAN correspondent for the New York Mets.
2017 inductees: Al Leiter longtime MLB pitcher, three-time World Series champion and Emmy Award-winning baseball analyst; Pat Hughes: play-by-play voice of the Chicago Cubs who called their historic World Series victory in 2016; Casey Stengel, “Baseball's Greatest Character”; The O'Neill Brothers, four siblings from Connemara, Ireland, who played in the Major Leagues; John Mooney, co-founder and curator of Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.) is home of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. Located across from the Empire State Building, Foley's is a popular destination among baseball players, executives, umpires, media, and fans. The "Irish Bar with a Baseball Attitude" features walls adorned with 3,500 autographed balls, bobbleheads, game-worn jerseys, stadium seats and other artifacts that make it the premier baseball bar in New York and one of the best sports bars in America. For more information, call (212) 290-0080 or visit www.foleysny.com, Facebook or Twitter @foleysny.