Doug Harvey (finally) Elected to the HOF

[Kevin Finnerty]

It is an extreme rarity for an umpire to make the Hall of Fame. This is the entire list:

1953 Bill Klem (1905 - 1941)
1953 Tom Connolly (1901 - 1931)
1973 Billy Evans (1906 - 1927)
1974 Jocko Conlan (1941 - 1964)
1976 Cal Hubbard (1946 - 1951)
1989 Al Barlick (1940-1943 / 1946-1955 / 1958-1971)
1992 Bill McGowan (1925 - 1954)
1999 Nestor Chylak (1954 - 1978)
2009 Doug Harvey (1962 - 1992)

Four of the nine were honored posthumously. Harvey is almost 80. Whole decades go by without an umpire even being discussed.

Bruce Froemming--if the committee looks the other way on his transgressions--has a ghost of a chance. No other umpire from that era has any real chance. I don't even see Froemming going in.

The Hall of Fame doesn't honor contributors at the standard rate--even at the standard Veterans Committee rate. Marvin Miller isn't even in the Hall. Nor is Dr. Frank Jobe. They don't even honor enough managers. But the guy who invented the curveball (an otherwise obscure six-year pitcher named Candy Cummings) is in for that alone. Tinker, Evers and Chance are all in for being in a catchy poem. And an inordinate number of the Gashouse Gang Cardinals got in for their relationship to Frankie Frisch, at one time a leading voice on the Veterans Committee. But it doesn't work that way anymore.

The fact that it took so long to recognize Doug freaking Harvey all but seals the deal on everyone else. Don't hold your breath on anyone---not even Froemming. It won't be happening for any of them. They may not even enter a committee discussion.