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Taking a look at Minnie Minoso's Hall of Fame case

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor
Taking a look at Minnie Minoso's Hall of Fame case

With the news that baseball pioneer and Chicago legend Minnie Minoso died early Sunday at the age of 92, comes obvious sadness. Not only for the brilliant man lost, whose energy and passion for life and baseball may only be matched by another Chicago legend we recently lost, Ernie Banks, but also for the big heartbreak we know he lived with for so many years over his exclusion from baseball's Hall of Fame.

Minnie Minoso wanted nothing more than to be honored by his peers and recognized by the game he loved. As he stated many times, it was his final dream in life. Just to have that moment and know he truly belonged among baseball's elite.

“'My last dream is to be in Cooperstown, to be with those guys,”' Minoso said. “'I want to be there. This is my life's dream.”

It's a feeling Minoso carried with him and echoed right up until his final day. On Saturday, Minoso talked to Christina Kahrl of ESPN, and once again spoke of the heart break he felt after falling short on the Hall of Fame's Golden Era ballot this past winter.

Truly, I'm hurt. You know why? Because I've seen so many guys – and all of my respect is for them – get inducted [into Cooperstown], but my records are better. And I played more years. That's what's breaking my heart. I go to these card shows, and most guys there are Hall of Famers. Some of them got in later, but what difference should there be?

Making Minoso's disappointment even more disheartening is that it's an honor he deserved.

Obviously, the numbers have been looked at frontwards and backwards, and every time they were deemed to fall short of Hall of Fame standards. Despite playing in parts of 17 seasons, he only finished with 1,724 career hits, well short of the 3,000 hit milestone that's often viewed as a benchmark. His 186 career home runs won't turn many heads either. though he had enough power and speed to put him in this elite category.

The question about how old Minoso truly was raised some doubts as well. The White Sox say he was 92 at the time of his death, which means his first full season in MLB didn't come until he was 28. Others say he was 89 or 90. But let's be honest, this shouldn't be about stats or an age debate. Minoso's story and his impact on the game go well beyond that, and it's possible no one made a better argument for Minoso's overall contributions than South Side Larry did this past October.

But as I pointed out in response to this almost three years ago, Neyer and others like him miss the point: "Miñoso doesn't get in the Hall for his numbers, or even his "projected" numbers. He gets in because being a trailblazing black Latino puts him over the top. That is what these people are missing."

As Jim replied to me: "I’m guessing a lot of people don’t understand the distinctions between Black, Latino and black Latino, and think Jackie Robinson opened the door for all of them." And today, more than 65 years after Robinson's debut, that's an easy thing to misunderstand. The vast majority of baseball fans and writers do not remember the time when major league baseball was a white-only game. Heck, most probably cannot even remember the time when overt racism was pretty normal.

Sometimes it comes down to matters that can't be measured or calculated. In Minoso's case, what he did for the game couldn't be measured or calculated anyway. He was a difference maker and pioneer above all else. He backed it up by being an excellent player, especially through his prime seasons from 1952-1960. And he continued having a positive impact on the game by being an ambassador and a mentor to generations of players. That's the true definition of making an impact.

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The fact that Minoso appeared in major league games in five different decades is a pretty fun footnote as well. Critics called his appearances in 1976 and 1980 a sideshow, but the fans enjoyed it, especially when a 53-year-old Minoso collected his final hit on Sept. 12, 1976.

For more than 60 years, Minnie Minoso made the game of baseball better, and in more than 60 different ways, he made it more fun. If his contributions weren't Hall of Fame worthy, perhaps we need to rethink the entire process.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!