Minnie Miñoso, first black MLB player in Chicago, dies at 89

Minnie Minoso, first black MLB player in Chicago, dies at 89

Like Luke Easter and Satchel Paige, his fellow black pioneers in the AL, Minnie's age was always a mystery, and apparently still is. MLB lists his birthdate as November 25, 1925, but the White Sox say he's 90 now, indicating he was born in 1924, and the reporter who wrote the article says he was 53 when he got his last major league hit in 1976, which would place his November birth in 1922.

Minnie placed in the top five in MVP balloting four times in his career (finishing exactly fourth each time). He was the top outfielder in the balloting twice, and was strong enough with the leather that he was still winning gold gloves at the end of his career.

His specialty was aggressive attack. No pitcher made him back off. Minnie crowded the plate and was happy to take first base after getting hit. He led the American League in "hit by pitcher" an amazing 10 times in his first eleven years in the bigs. In eight of those seasons he also batted above .300. His lifetime average was .298 with an OPS+ of 130.

He was no less aggressive on the basepaths. He led the league three times in triples and three times in stolen bases.

Long after his major league career was over, he was still tearing up the Mexican League until he was nearly 50 years old. Because of his legendary resistance to the normal aging process, Minnie was brought back for ceremonial appearances in both the majors and the minors. He batted for the White Sox in 1976 (age somewhere between 50 and 53) and 1980 (54 to 57), and appeared in minor league games in 1993 (67 to 70) and 2003 (77 to 80). He drew a walk in that last appearance, which may make him the oldest professional player ever to reach base.

Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Yes, probably. His only failing lies in the "counter stats" like total hits and total homers, but he compares favorably to Al Kaline in the percentage stats, and Kaline is a slam dunk Hall of Famer:

BA/OBP/SLG/OPS ... OPS+
Kaline .297/.376/.480/.855 ... 134
Minoso .298/.389/.459/.848 ... 130

They played in the same league in the same era, were both golden glove outfielders, and were absolutely considered peers. You may wonder why Kaline is in the Hall, Minoso out. The reason rests in their cumulative totals. Kaline played in 2800 games and reached the magical level of 3000 hits, while Minoso played in fewer than 1800 games and had only 1963 hits. But there is an explanation for that, and it is beyond Minoso's control. Kaline came up to the majors at age 18 and was a regular at age 19, but Minoso's skin color denied him those options. Assuming Minoso was born in 1922, he was 18 in 1940 - seven years before black players were allowed in the majors and eleven years before a black player would be added to the roster of the White Sox. (That player was Minoso.)

Assuming Minoso's oldest possible age, he played his first full season at age 28. If Kaline had had to wait until age 28 for his first full season, he would have accumulated fewer than 1500 hits.

Assuming Minoso's youngest possible age, he played his first full season at age 25. If Kaline had had to wait until age 25 for his first full season, he would have accumulated 1960 hits, almost identical to Minoso's 1963.

I'm going to assume the latter, which is Minoso's worst case scenario, and tell you that Minoso and Kaline were absolutely dead even. Given the fact that Minoso was barred from the majors when he was a young man, and did not choose his skin color, I'd say he's a true Hall of Famer based on his major league playing career alone, and that playing career, impressive though it was, only scratched the surface of his legend.