Outside The Confines: Legends make their way to the Hall

This time of year there’s often a lot of discourse around the Hall of Fame, and the ballots of BBWAA members who have placed their votes for more recent players. This discourse can often be frustrating (who leaves their ballot blank?) and contentious (do you or do you not vote for steroid-using players, or players of questionable moral character?).

But there’s one part of Hall of Fame voting that I always find more bearable (though certainly still open to frustration, if you’re still waiting for Lou Whitaker to gain entry), and that is the votes of the Eras Committee, who can allow players who have long since fallen off the main ballot to get their much-deserved second look at admission.

On Sunday evening, six such players were admitted to the hallowed halls of Cooperstown, via two different Eras Committee groups. Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and Tony Oliva were elected by the Golden Days Era Committee, while Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil were chosen by the Early Baseball Era Committee. Cubs fans especially will be thrilled to see O’Neil finally get his due, but many of these players have long deserved to be in the Hall of Fame.

With the lockout still in full force, the Hall of Fame admissions were big news over the weekend, and most of today’s links are about them. Since it’s nice to share a positive news story during a relative down period in baseball, we’ll be heavily featuring those links today.

• Prior to Sunday’s announcement, Shakeia Taylor wrote a case for Buck O’Neil’s Hall of Fame inclusion.
• Anne Rogers reflects specifically on O’Neil and what his inclusion signifies.
• Anthony DiComo focuses his attention on Gil Hodges.
• Nick Selbe looks at all six of the newest Hall of Fame inductees.
• The Athletic staff also give us an overview of the six new Hall of Famers. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Anthony Castrovince gives us the MLB dot com look at the new inductees.
• Bradford Doolittle celebrates the triumph of Minnie Miñosa finally getting into the Hall.
• Scott Merkin, likewise, takes time to reflect on Miñosa.
• Beth Mowins, the first woman to do play-by-play announcing for the Cubs, will become the first woman to announce a regular-season NBA game on ESPN.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka has retired after 23 years in baseball, and was surprised by a visit from Ichiro Suzuki during his retirement ceremony.
• In an interesting move, the Yankees have upgraded two player development staff into coaching roles. Story by Lindsey Adler. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Emma Baccellieri looks at the lingering questions we will all need answered when baseball finally returns.
• Just in case you need it, here’s an FAQ regarding the lockout.
• For a bit of fun, Jason Catania, Sarah Langs and Andrew Simon look at each team’s longest hitting streak.
• Yasiel Puig released a very interesting statement this weekend.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.