Minoso denied entry into Hall; Golden Era Committee elects none of 10 candidates

SAN DIEGO – White Sox great Minnie Minoso was denied entry into the Hall of Fame Monday, failing to receive the necessary votes from the 16-member Golden Era Committee.

Minoso, 89, received eight votes and needed 12. Former Sox Dick Allen received 11 votes, falling one shy.

Minoso, 89, played for the Sox from 1951-57, ’60-61, ’64, and briefly as a player-coach in ’76 and ’80. He received nine of the 12 votes needed when the Golden Era Committee, which replaced the former Veterans Committee elect candidates not eligible by the Baseball Writers Association of America, first met in 2011. The committee meets and votes every three years.

Here’s how the votes were tallied:

Dick Allen (11 votes), Tony Oliva (11 votes); Jim Kaat (10), Maury Wills (9), Minoso (8.; Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Bob Howsam, Billy Pierce and Luis Tiant received three or fewer votes each.

“I’m very disappointed Minnie and Billy didn’t get in because they clearly deserve to get in,’ Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. “I don’t know what player out of the era of the 50s and early 60s would be more deserving than Minnie. You look at the stats and the only people that did better than Minnie did in every category are already in the Hall of Fame. But having said that I know these people are very sincere in their voting. I know they took it very seriously.”

Reinsdorf said Allen “had kind of a checkered career. If I had been on the committee, I wouldn’t have voted for him. He only really had six really good years. I don’t think he would rise to the standard of the others, in my opinion. But when he was with the White Sox he certainly had Hall of Fame years.”

Minoso, a seven-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove outfielder who played 17 seasons with the Sox, Indians, Cardinals and Senators is not only a sentimental favorite — they call him ”Mr. White Sox” — but a worthy candidate as well. Crunching his numbers from 1951 until 1962, Minoso had the seventh-highest WAR among position players, trailing Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Eddie Mathews, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks.

What’s more, the “Cuban Comet” was the first black White Sox, and he blazed a trail for Latin American players in the big leagues starting in the 1950s. Minoso drove in 100 runs four times for the Sox and hit .300 or better six times.

Allen, who played nine of his 15 seasons with the Phillies and two and half with the Sox, is believed by many to be — by performance standards — the most deserving of any eligible player who wore a Sox uniform. The slugging first baseman played 15 seasons from 1963-77 for five teams, none bigger than 1972 when he won AL Most Valuable Player award after keeping the red-pinstriped Sox in contention in the AL West for most of the season by hitting .308 with 37 HR and 113 RBI. The last Sox to lead the AL in homers with 32 in 1974, Allen from 1964 to ’74 led all of baseball in offensive war (Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski and Joe Morgan ranked two through five behind him) and finished his career with 351 home runs, 1,119 RBI and a .292 career average. He was NL Rookie of the Year in 1964 and a seven-time All-Star.