This morning, the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced eight nominees for its Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Player Ballot of 2027, which includes Managers, Executives & Umpires whose primary contributions to the game have come since 1980. It’s an extraordinarily Giants list and a reminder of just how good we’ve had it over the last 46 years: Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, and Brian Sabean are the Giants headliners, but one-time advisor Lou Piniella and former New York & San Francisco Giant Bill White
are also on the list. Former Atlanta owner Ted Turner and manager Joe Maddon are also on the list. What are the chances someone we know makes it?
Well, let me first get this out of the way: Barry Bonds is not in the Hall of Fame specifically because of the PED use; but, I personally find that this makes the Hall illegitimate, especially since it went out of its way to alter its rules to keep him, specifically, out of it. But at the same time, Bonds Stands Alone, and his notable exclusion is both enough of a pock and enough of a distinction that I’m just happy to see these (to me, anyway) legends recognized one last time by the baseball community, and in baseball’s last, best way.
Dusty Baker
I think it probably took him until that World Series win for this to really become real. He’s 8th in career wins (2,183), was Manager of the Year three times, and has that world championship from 2022. There’s also DUSTINY, the toothpick, those wristbands, Darren Baker in the NLCS, managing Barry Bonds AND Jeff Kent, as well as starting Livan Hernandez in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series instead of Kirk Rueter — NO!
Noooo.
No… this is a happy time.
Deep breath.
Okay. Better now.
He also co-created high fives; so, yeah, put him in.
Bruce Bochy
Won three World Series in five seasons and is sixth in career wins, but then he came out of semi-retirement to add a fourth for good measure. He has been written about on this very website maybe, oh, 6 million times, so, please don’t interpret this brief blurb as anything other than a, “Well, yeah, obviously. Look at what he accomplished.” But when you put him next to Dusty Baker you really see the magnitude of their contributions to the game. Just these two guys. And not just for the Giants. But, bullpenning is basically the default setting for the postseason now thanks to Bruce Bochy — yes, it helped that he had the right personnel (we know what happened when he didn’t). It feels like we’ve been preparing for his inclusion for the last decade now.
Brian Sabean
Like Bochy, it feels like we’ve been preparing for his inclusion for a long time now. After news broke that the Yankees hadn’t renewed his contract to continue on as an advisor, I looked him up and was surprised to see that he’s now 70 years old. He has always occupied the Patrick Stewart part of my brain — this sort of ageless icon I just assume will always be there in old man form. If you think I’m giving him a short shrift, please note that he has been written about on this website, oh, 6 million times. Savvy Sabes, Sabey Sabes, “I Am Not An Idiot” Sabes… a legend.
In a perfect world, these three go in together. These three were the architects of joy for a lot of Giants fans for a couple of generations. But, we’ve been saying this about Kruk & Kuip for a longtime now and how they need to be inducted into the Broadcaster Hall of Fame together. We know beyond that situation that we live in a far from perfect world, to. But there are also some details that ground the doomerism in fact. Hall of Fame monitor/expert Jay Jaffe offers this analysis:
He then cites a piece written in 2022 about the candidate bottleneck created by these new rules. The Hall notes its committee formation and selection process:
Lou Piniella
The eight Contemporary Baseball Era finalists were selected by the BBWAA-appointed Historical Overview Committee from all eligible candidates among managers, umpires and executives whose most significant career impact was realized since 1980.
[…]
The Contemporary Baseball Era non-player ballot was determined this fall by the Historical Overview Committee, comprised of 11 veteran historians: Adrian Burgos (University of Illinois); Bob Elliott (Canadian Baseball Network); Steve Hirdt (historian); La Velle Neal (Minnesota Star Tribune); David O’Brien (formerly The Athletic); Jose de Jesus Ortiz (Our Esquina Media), Jack O’Connell (BBWAA); Jim Reeves (formerly Fort Worth Star-Telegram); Glenn Schwarz (formerly San Francisco Chronicle); Susan Slusser (San Francisco Chronicle); and Mark Whicker (formerly Southern California News Group).
The 16-member Hall of Fame Board-appointed electorate charged with the review of the Contemporary Baseball Era non-player ballot will be announced later this fall.
Without knowing who will make up the selection committee, it’s probably worth erring on the side of what makes the most sense. So, it’s not a given that the obviously deserving Giants-themed candidates are selected. As the Hall’s press release notes, “All candidates except Turner are living.” Lou Piniella, 83, has been battling with cancer off and on for a few years now — though, he’s been cancer-free recently andthrew out a first pitch this past August. Sandy Alderson has also dealt with cancer-related health problems in the past decade. Bill White is 92 and just received the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hall of Fame (partial speech here — but, warning, it’s a Facebook video link). And I’m discounting Ted Turner along with Joe Maddon, but probably at my peril.
I must also note another thing pointed out to me about this list:
I don’t know if that hurts or helps Dusty, Piniella, or Maddon, but it’s something to note! As Giants-centric as I feel this list is, Lou Piniella is a big deal in the world of baseball. Really, they all are, which is the entire point of the Hall of Fame! No matter who gets in, I always try to get people to realize that this is a great time in the baseball calendar to not just Remember Some Guys but to take another — maybe even last — opportunity to celebrate the genuine accomplishments of some memorable people in the game of Baseball.
