Schuerholz, Selig elected to Hall of Fame

John Schuerholz and Bud Selig have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the “Today’s Game Era Committee,” it has been announced. Schuerholz, the former general manager with the Kansas City Royals and the Atlanta Braves, and Selig, the former Brewers owner who took over for Fay Vincent as commissioner after the owners fired Vincent, were expected to be the only two candidates elected by the committee.

The other candidates on the ballot were Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella, George Steinbrenner, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Mark McGwire, Albert Belle, and Harold Baines.

While there’s eye-rolling going on about Selig being elected -- and I’m one of the ones rolling my eyes over it -- the reality is, as the commissioner for a lengthy period of time, he was going to be elected. Bowie Kuhn, who spent over a decade in an incompetent fight to try to limit players’ rights, and who lost over and over again, is in the Hall, so of course Selig was getting in.

Schuerholz, meanwhile, was a unanimous selection (Selig was reportedly just named on 15 of 16 ballots), and as the architect of the great Royals teams of the 70s and early 80s, and then the great Braves teams of the 90s, I don’t think there’s any question he’s a worthy choice.

Joe Posnanski wrote about the ballot and the issues with how the Hall is choosing to do these various era committees, which I encourage you to check out.