Next month in Nashville, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the results of voting for the Pre-Integration Era ballot. Ten candidates are on the ballot, which was selected by an 11-person panel of baseball historians.
Those historians dropped the ball by not including the name of one of the most important men in baseball history.
Francis Joseph O’Doul answered to many names during his lifetime, from Frankie to Frank to Lefty to The Man in the Green Suit. His incredible career in baseball is one that’s unmatched by any figure in history and for that reason he deserves to at least be considered for election to the Hall of Fame. His absence from the ballot is a glaring omission.
O’Doul is worthy of consideration for a couple of reasons:
His playing record
In 11 big league seasons, Lefty O’Doul hit .349 and twice won batting titles: in 1929 for the Phillies and in 1932 for the Dodgers. In ’29 he hit .398 with a National League record 254 hits. He batted .383 the following year and only once hit below. 300 in his seven years as a major league outfielder. O’Doul began his career as a pitcher but an arm injury ended that before it really got started in 1923. That was with Boston, and just like with another slugger (Babe Ruth) a few years earlier, the Sox saw the batting prowess of O’Doul and suggested he try his hand at playing every day. That’s when Lefty embarked on his stellar career as a batsmen. He was so good that he was a member of the NL’s first All-Star team in 1933, a roster that included more than a dozen Hall of Famers. The previous season, Lefty had out-hit them all. After the ’34 season at the age of 37, O’Doul accepted an offer from his hometown San Francisco Seals to manage in the Pacific Coast League. He was paid the princely sum of $4,150, more than he was making in the big leagues. He never played in the majors again though he surely could have padded his numbers. His .349 batting average is fourth in baseball history for players with more than 900 games played.
His contribution to the growth of baseball in Japan
It’s not an exaggeration to say that without Lefty O’Doul there wouldn’t be a Japanese Baseball League with stars of the quality to play in the major leagues in the U.S. Back in 1931, O’Doul was included in a group of MLB players who traveled to Japan on a goodwill tour to promote the game. At that time there were no organized baseball leagues in Japan, and after a few more trips to Japan in the 1930s (most of them organized by the enthusiastic O’Doul), that island nation was sufficiently baseball crazy. O’Doul was an iconic figure to the Japanese – he established clinics that taught the game to them, showed them how to recruit and train players, instructed them in physical fitness and the ways to throw certain pitches, and so on. In 1936 the first pro league was formed in Japan. O’Doul returned to the nation several times throughout his life to continue a relationship with the Japanese. He was so fond of the nation that when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941 he took it as a personal affront and went into a depression for weeks. Later, after relations normalized between the U.S. and Japan, O’Doul continued to foster a relationship across the Pacific Ocean.
Taken individually, neither of the two points outlined above are enough to earn Lefty automatic entry to Cooperstown, but they are at least enough to get him on the ballot to be considered, especially his batting record and contributions to international baseball.
In 2007, Lefty appeared on the Hall’s Veterans Committee ballot for the only time but no one was selected that year, and since then the process for nominating and considering “old-time” players has undergone several transformations. This new process, which rotates the old-timers by era over a three-year cycle is a step in the right direction, partly because it allows the electorate to focus on individuals from a similar era at one time, and partly because a panel of baseball “historians” is now involved. One of the members of that panel is Glen Schwarz, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle. Surely Schwarz knows of the legendary O’Doul, since Lefty remains an iconic figure in the Bay Area. Yet somehow, Lefty was overlooked in favor of others like Wes Ferrell and Marty Marion.
I must relate a troubling story from my time at the Hall of Fame because it may shed light on how a figure like Lefty can be ignored so many years after his playing career. This was in 2005 or 2006, and Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau was in Cooperstown to chair a committee that was putting together the candidates for the Veterans Committee ballot. I asked him about O’Doul, and Hirdt responded, “I don’t think he’s eligible.” The head of a significant sports statistical bureau and chair of the Hall of Fame’s committee on veterans was under the mistaken impression that O’Doul had not played the minimum 10 seasons required to be eligible under the rules. Of course I pointed out that he was and also that his batting average trailed only Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsbsy, and Joe Jackson. I received a blank stare and a nod from Mr. Hirdt.
Hirdt is still a part of the Hall of Fame process, whether that’s a good thing, I’m not sure. But it’s quite embarrassing, in my opinion, that the ballot includes a player like Marion, who spent 13 years in the majors and was known only for his defensive prowess while hitting a paltry .263 with no power, while Lefty put in 11 seasons, won multiple batting honors, and also contributed so much off the field. The very same ballot includes Al Reach, a man apparently being considered for induction because he published a baseball magazine. O’Doul planted, seeded, and watered the roots of baseball in Japan, which resulted in an explosion of popularity for the game worldwide. Indeed, if O’Doul were ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame it would be appropriate if Ichiro Suzuki accepted the honor for Lefty, who passed in 1969. If not for Lefty, Ichiro would never have had the chance to show off his remarkable skills stateside.
Next time around, I urge the Historical Overview Committee to add O’Doul’s deserving name to their ballot, and to delve into the remarkable qualifications of this man.
You are right! “Lefty” O’Doul should be in The National Baseball of Fame. He is in the PCL Hall of Fame. He is in the BASHOF. He is the only American Major League Player in the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. He should at least be honored with The Buck O’Neil Award for his contributions to baseball in Japan and world wide. O’Doul’s exclusion from the Hall of Fame ballot is not only a mistake, it is a shame!
Tom, good points about Lefty being inducted into the Japanese BB Hall of Fame, etc. The fact that he alone has been honored in Japan is a pretty significant deal. If Lefty doesn’t make it, I hope that when Ichiro is inducted he mentions Lefty and the oversight.
Ichiro Suzuki will be the first and only baseball player from Japan to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
I agree that he will be the first, but you never know if another Japanese-born player will have a stellar career in the States. Yu Darvish?
I find your argument less than compelling. O’Doul is nowhere near a HOF caliber player and his managerial career, as you’ve outlined it, was not in MLB. Perhaps he deserves some credit as a pioneer for baseball outside the USA, but it’s a huge stretch to say he’s a HOF.
Your point is taken, and many others have made it. If the HOF gave him the Buck O’Neil Award that would be a step in the right direction. I do feel that his career .349 average, two batting titles, and single-season record for hits in the NL shows that he was a great player. Fourth all-time in batting average and he doesn’t at least get on the ballot?
I think a campaign for the Buck O’Neil award would be worthwhile. But it’s a .349 BA in only 3,264 AB’s. That’s only about 6 seasons worth of AB’s.
At any rate, I thank you for the history lesson! I enjoyed reading about Mr. O’Doul!
Batting average! How quaint. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face.
That’s one of the things that makes non-SABRgeeks frustrated by the SABRmetric crowd. I KNOW batting average is an overrated stat. Trust me, I do. I worked at the baseball hall of fame, helped work on and normalize the baseball database that runs baseball-reference.com, have done years of baseball research, both statistical and otherwise. I’m not an idiot. But those who adhere strictly to SABRmetric methods are often arrogant and dismissive. They act as if a simple check of WAR and OPS+ and UZR, etc. can answer any argument, solve any debate. And anyone who doesn’t embrace their park adjusted view of baseball history is a moron. We’re not morons. There are many ways to look at the debate of who should be in the HOF. If it was solely based on stats, the election rules would say that. When I mention batting average in regards to Lefty O’Doul, it’s becuase his average is one of THE BEST OF ALL-TIME. It serves as a function of his ability to get on base. OBP is important, correct? I suppose if a modern player hit .380 with 25 walks, you’d dismiss his value because most of it came from batting average? Fact: a hit is worth more than a walk. A player who got on base by a hit 35% of the time over a 900-game career is not a bad player. I don’t care what era he played in. We’re not talking about Steve Garvey hitting .310 with no plate discipline here.
I’d like to see the SABRmetric crowd tone down the holier-than-though attitude. Argue based on the merits of your methods, don’t dismiss others because they don’t always agree.
One of trickiest cases for the HOF to be sure. Just based on his major league record, I say he comes up a bit short despite the .349/.413/.532 batting line. In addition to a high batting average, he was good at getting on base and had decent power but his numbers pop off the page because of the high offense of his era. His career was just too short for me. He had 2 or maybe 3 truly great season and was a part time player the rest of his career.
The tricky part is that he also spent time as a pitcher in both the majors and minors, AND had several outstanding seasons in the minors hitting .370-.390, AND won 2000 games as a minor league manager, AND did extensive work as an ambassador to the Japanese game. Does all this count? Sure. Historically though, minor league accomplishments have not been valued by the HOF, even though the quality of the PCL in the 1920s was probably stronger than the majors in the 1880s and we have plenty HOFers from that era. And we also have guys like Wilber Robinson and Hughie Jennings who made it in based on their playing career plus managerial career. O’Douls career is so choppy, that it takes a much closer look than most. He was a very good player , a successful manager and a great contributor. I say based on the entire career that a solid case can be made for him.
As a side note, I visited his bar in S.F. about 5 years ago and it was an interesting slice of baseball history.
I could not agree more. Numbers don’t lie. Remember the 1933 Would Series?
How about the All American Tour to Japan in 1934?
The Pacific Coast League WAS The Third Major League.
The Buck O’Neil Award (not an Award for Baseball stats. but for contributions to baseball) will be awarded again in 2013. If no other HOF honor, this time lets give it to Frank “Lefty” O’Doul.
Tom, are you any relation to Lefty?
Yes!
Francis Joseph O’Doul was my cousin.
“Lefty’s” father and my grandfather were brothers.
Dan,
Certainly Lefty is the most important and deserving man not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Your column was beautiful, but it did not mention his Pacific Coast League exploits, .353 batting average. won over 2,000 games and two titles as a manager, and even pitched, winning 45 games and throwing 12 shutouts. At the time there was no Major League baseball west of St. Louis and the PCL was considered almost on a par with the Major Leagues. It’s a crime that Lefty is not in the Hall in some capacity.
John Torsiello
Isn’t O’Doul ineligible for Cooperstown because he played just 970 (two shy of six 162-game seasons) MLB games,and,unlike the Negro Leaguers with Hall Of Fame plaques who played little or no MLB,he was a white man eligible for The Show in every era ?
O’Doul probably should be enshrined due to his off-the-field activities on behalf of American and Japanese baseball,but let’s face it :He won two batting crowns and was traded within two years after both.Doesn’t sound too Hall-Of-Famish to this ol’ boy.
You must play ten seasons, and O’Doul played in 11. He is very eligible, and his name has appeared on “old-timers” ballots through the years.
Rod Carew was traded after winning batting titles. So was Wade Boggs. So what? If you read my article, I don’t make an argument that O’Doul’s playing record ALONE is what should make him a Hall of Famer. But given all he did, as a player, pioneer, manager, and ambassador of the game to Japan and Asia, he’s deserving. In my opinion.