Cooperstown Putting Plans in Place for 2022 Hall of Fame Induction of Seven Members

From the offices of the Baseball Hall of Fame

START OF SOMETHING BIG

Baseball’s newest stars are gearing up for the 2022 season at Spring Training camps in Arizona and Florida, but the National Baseball Hall of Fame is prepping for the game’s biggest annual celebration when seven legends will be inducted as the Class of 2022 this July in Cooperstown.

With the election of David Ortiz by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in January, the election of Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil by the Early Baseball Era Committee and the election of Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and Tony Oliva by the Golden Days Era Committee , the total number of Hall of Famers now stands at 340.

The Class of 2022 will be inducted at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 24 on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown.

2022 Ford C. Frick Award winner Jack Graney and 2022 BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner Tim Kurkjian of ESPN will be honored during Induction Weekend at the Awards Presentation on Saturday, July 23 in Cooperstown.

HOF WEEKEND CREDENTIALS

Hall of Fame Weekend 2022 will be held July 22-25 with the annual Induction Ceremony scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 24.

The Weekend will feature the annual Awards Presentation at Doubleday Field on Saturday, July 23 at 4:30 p.m.

The 11th edition of the Hall of Fame Parade of Legends will follow the Awards Presentation along Main Street.

T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 2 2 BUDDY SYSTEM:

Born John W. Jackson Jr. in Fort Plain, N.Y., on March 16, 1858, Bud Fowler and his family moved to Cooperstown – located about a half hour from Fort Plain – just a few years later.

Often acknowledged as the first Black professional baseball player, Fowler endured a nomadic career in search of opportunities to play baseball. He played professionally for nearly two decades and his talents earned him recognition in the baseball community.

In 1894, Fowler helped form the Page Fence Giants, who would go on to become one of the all-time great Black barnstorming teams. Later on, he had a hand in establishing other barnstorming clubs, including the Smoky City Giants, the All-American Black Tourists and the Kansas City Stars, and was a strong proponent of establishing Black baseball leagues.

Fowler passed away on Feb. 26, 1913.

HODGE PODGE

Gil Hodges played 18 seasons with the Dodgers and the Mets from 1943-63, earning eight All-Star Game selections and three Gold Glove Awards at first base. He topped the 20-homer mark in 11 straight seasons from 1949-59, drove in 100-or-more runs each year from 1949-55 and played on seven pennant winners and two World Series champion.

He ended his career with 370 home runs – the third-most by a right-handed hitter at the time of his retirement. Hodges went on to manage the Senators and Mets for nine seasons, leading New York to a memorable World Series title in 1969. Hodges passed away on April 2, 1972.

KAAT TREATS

Jim Kaat pitched for 25 seasons with the Senators, Twins, White Sox, Phillies, Yankees and Cardinals, winning 283 games, A three-time 20-game winner, three-time All-Star and 16-time Gold Glove Award winner, Kaat’s 625 career games started ranks 17th all-time and his 4,530.1 innings pitched ranks 25th.

He helped the Twins win the 1965 American League pennant and the Phillies win National League East titles from 1976-78 before transitioning to the bullpen, when he was a key member of manager Whitey Herzog’s relief corps as the Cardinals won the World Series.

RINGS OF SATURNINO

Minnie Miñoso starred in the Negro National League with the New York Cubans from 1946-48 before debuting with the Cleveland Indians in 1949. Born Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso in Havana, Cuba, he played 17 seasons with the Indians, White Sox, Cardinals and Senators, becoming the first dark-skinned Latin American player to appear in an AL or NL game.

Miñoso finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1951 and earned the first of nine All-Star Game selections in the AL/NL Midsummer Classic that year. A three-time Gold Glove Award winner in left field, Miñoso led the AL in triples and stolen bases three times apiece and finished his career with 2,110 hits and a .299 batting average. Miñoso passed away on March 1, 2015.

TONY’S REWARD

Tony Oliva spent his entire 15-year big league career with the Twins, winning three AL batting titles while leading the league in hits five times. The 1964 American League Rookie of the Year – he tied a rookie record with 374 total bases that season, a mark that still stands – Oliva was named to the All-Star Game in eight straight seasons from 1964-71 before knee injuries took their toll.

A Gold Glove Award winner for his play in right field in 1966, Oliva became the first player in AL/NL history to win batting titles in each of his first two seasons.

He received votes in the AL Most Valuable Player balloting in each season from 1964-71 and finished his career with a .304 batting average.

VOICE OF HISTORY

Buck O’Neil played, managed, coached, scouted and served as an executive for nearly eight decades – but his incredible legacy expands far beyond just baseball. O’Neil got his start in semipro ball before spending time with various barnstorming and minor league clubs. He broke into the Negro American League with the Memphis Red Sox in 1937, then latched on at first base for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1938…He would remain with the club for nearly two decades. From 1939-42, the Monarchs captured four consecutive Negro American League pennants, sweeping the Homestead Grays in the Negro League World Series in 1942.

In 1948, O’Neil was named player-manager of the Monarchs – a role he would hold until 1955. O’Neil departed Kansas City in 1955 and signed on as a scout for the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs promoted O’Neil to their major league coaching staff in 1962, making him the first Black coach to serve on an AL or NL roster. A beloved champion of the game and gifted storyteller, O’Neil helped establish the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City in 1990. O’Neil passed away on Oct. 6, 2006.

KING DAVID

David Ortiz played 20 seasons for the Twins and Red Sox. A 10-time All-Star and eight-time winner of the Edgar Martinez Award presented to the outstanding designated hitter, Ortiz powered a Boston team that won three World Series titles in 10 seasons after the franchise had gone 86 years without a championship…A seven-time Silver Slugger Award winner who finished in the Top 4 of the AL MVP voting each year from 2004-07, Ortiz led the league in RBI three times and reached the 30-home run mark in 10 seasons, finishing with 541 round-trippers.

Ortiz retired as one of only four players with at least 500 home runs and 600 doubles and his 1,192 extra base hits are tied for eighth all-time. His 20 walk-off hits in the regular season are the third-most in MLB history, and his 485 home runs as a DH are the most by any player at the position. He hit .289 with 17 homers and 61 RBI in 85 career postseason games, earning ALCS MVP honors in 2004 and the World Series MVP Award in 2013.

2022 AWARD WINNERS

Jack Graney, winner of the 2022 Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters, and Tim Kurkjian, the 2022 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award, will be honored at the 2022 Hall of Fame Awards Presentation on Saturday, July 23.

JACKS TO OPEN:

Jack Graney, who followed up a 14-year big league career with the Cleveland Indians by becoming a legendary Northeast Ohio broadcasting voice, was selected as the 2022 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Graney was selected from a final ballot of candidates in the Broadcasting Beginnings category per the three-year cycle for the Frick Award. Born June 10, 1886, in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, Graney was a gifted left-handed amateur pitcher who joined the Cleveland Naps in 1908, pitching two games before spending most of the rest of the season in the minors. Converted to the outfield the next season, Graney returned to Cleveland in 1910 – becoming a regular for the next decade…A disciplined hitter, Graney led the American League in walks in both 1917 and 1919 and appeared in three games off the bench in the 1920 World Series, helping Cleveland defeat Brooklyn for the title. Graney made history as the first to bat against Babe Ruth in the big leagues (1914) and the first 20th century big league player to appear at bat with a number on his uniform (1916). Ending his big league career in 1922 with 1,178 hits and a .354 on-base percentage, Graney went into the automotive sales industry.

Then in 1932, WHK-AM began broadcasting Cleveland games and hired Graney, who is now widely considered to be the first former big league player to broadcast a major league game. For the next 22 years – except for 1945, when network radio broadcasts pre-empted local programming — Graney called games for a variety of Cleveland stations, including WHK, WGAR, WJW and WERE. Teaming with several partners, including 1997 Frick Award winner Jimmy Dudley, Graney’s meticulous descriptions of the action on the field and the elements of the ballpark brought the game to life for those who had never been to League Park or Cleveland Stadium…Graney called the World Series for a national audience in 1935 and also broadcast that year’s All-Star Game in Cleveland…He passed away on April 20, 1978.

CAPTAIN KURK

Tim Kurkjian, who has hit for the cycle as a baseball writer – newspaper beat coverage, magazine writing, internet essayist, television reporter/analyst – and found the time to author three books, was elected the 2022 winner of the BBWAA Career Excellence Award. A graduate of Walter Johnson High school in his native Bethesda, Md., and the University of Maryland, Kurkjian began his career in 1979 for the Washington Star and two years later was the Rangers beat writer for the Dallas Morning News. After four years in Texas, Kurkjian returned to Maryland, joining the Baltimore Sun to cover the Orioles for four years. Kurkjian then spent seven years as Sports Illustrated’s senior baseball writer. In 1998, he joined ESPN where he has worked as a columnist for ESPN.com and a reporter/analyst/host for “Baseball Tonight,” the latter assignment earning him an Emmy Award in 2002. He won a second Emmy for contributions to “SportsCenter” in 2003-04.

Along the way, Kurkjian penned “America’s Game” (2000), an interactive look at baseball; “Is This a Great Game or What?” (2007), a collection of his personal reflections covering the sport; and “I’m Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies” (2017), detailing the idiosyncrasies that define his love for the game. Kurkjian has served on two Era Committees for the Hall of Fame and is on the board of directors for the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at Maryland.

VOTING RECAP THE 2022 BALLOT

The BBWAA ballot featured 30 players, including 13 new candidates and 17 returnees. Candidates appearing on the necessary 75 percent of all ballots cast to earn election appear in bold below. Candidates receiving less than five percent of the vote are no longer eligible for BBWAA consideration and appear in italics below. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa each appeared on the ballot for the 10th -and-final time and are no longer eligible for BBWAA consideration and appear in italics below.

Bonds, Clemens, Schilling and Sosa will each be eligible for the Today’s Game Era Committee ballot, which will be announced in the days following the conclusion of the 2022 World Series and voted on in December. Two first-year candidates received the five percent of the vote necessary to remain on the ballot: Álex Rodríguez (34.3%) and Jimmy Rollins (9.4%)…Fourteen players will return for consideration in 2023.

A total of 394 votes were cast, with 296 votes necessary for election and 20 votes necessary to remain on the ballot. Six blank ballots were cast. The final results, in order of percentage received with number of years on the ballot.

CONNECTING GENERATIONS

— Willie Mays, born May 6, 1931, is currently the oldest living Hall of Famer at 90.

— The Hall of Famer to reach the highest age was Bobby Doerr, who was 99 years, 220 days old when he passed away in 2017.

— David Ortiz, who was born on Nov. 18, 1975, is the youngest living Hall of Famer at 46 years of age

— The youngest elected Hall of Famer was Sandy Koufax, who was 36 when he was elected in 1972.