When Ted Williams Changed History

This article ran in the Hall of Fame 2016 Induction Commemorative magazine, which you can order here.

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The sky was partly cloudy, 86 degrees outside, a typical mid-summer day in the small upstate New York village of Cooperstown. But the Splendid Splinter was about to shake things up. That day 50 years ago, Ted Williams’ remarks before a worldwide audience would forever change the course of baseball’s most cherished institution.

Williams, the great Boston Red Sox slugger and arguably the greatest hitter in the game’s long history, was to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 1966. Sharing the stage with him this day was beloved manager Casey Stengel, an electee after 54 years in professional baseball well known for his unique gift of gab. But this would be a day for Teddy Ballgame to make news with his words instead of his bat.

What began as a standard acceptance speech evolved into something more important, when at the end Williams spoke for those without a voice, those who had been shunted aside, those with no hope of ever joining the National Pastime’s fabled fraternity.

“Inside this building are plaques dedicated to baseball men of all generations and I’m privileged to join them…And I hope that someday the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson in some way can be added as a symbol of the great Negro players that are not here only because they were not given a chance.”

Why Williams decided to use this day to make this case is up for debate. But the groundbreaking statement by one of baseball’s greats, while previously made by others in less prestigious forums, would prove to be the impetus for change.

“His speech had an impact. He did change some minds,” said Hall of Famer and Negro League veteran Monte Irvin, as quoted in the book Ted Williams: A Tribute. “The writers picked up on it, and some of the powers-that-be at the Hall of Fame had to kind of perk up and take notice.”

Washington sportswriter and 1975 Spink Award winner Shirley Povich was more succinct, once penning: “The fact is that Ted Williams launched the whole movement for the inclusion of Negro League players into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.”

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America, the group that annually votes on major league players for Hall of Fame inclusion, would later take up the cause. At the 1969 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, BBWAA President Dick Young, who would become the 1978 Spink Award winner, spoke eloquently on the subject before thousands of spectators.

“Until now, there has been one failing, and the baseball writers intend that this should be rectified,” Young said. “Nobody questions, certainly, the credentials of these great ballplayers on my right. They all belong. But we do ask the question, why should Waite Hoyt and Stanley Coveleski be in the Hall of Fame and not Satchel Paige? Why should Roy Campanella be in the Hall of Fame and not Josh Gibson?

“There are other men, great ballplayers, who certainly have a place here in this shrine. They were not part of organized ball. When the rules were set up, one of the rules was that you should excel for a period of 10 years because time proves a man’s worth. And it might be said that Satchel Paige did not play major league ball for 10 years and that Josh Gibson did not play major league ball for 10 years. But was that their fault, gentlemen? The answer, of course, is obvious.”

The vision of Williams became reality on Feb. 3, 1971, when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced the formation of a special 10-man committee, the Committee on Negro League Veterans, which included Roy Campanella, Judy Johnson and Monte Irvin, to select the top Negro league stars of the pre-1947 era “as part of a new exhibit commemorating the contributions of the Negro Leagues to baseball.” But they weren’t to be actual Hall of Famers because they didn’t play major league ball for the required 10 seasons.

Allowed to choose one player per year, the Committee unanimously selected Paige on Feb. 9, 1971. The tall and lean right-handed pitcher, whose true age will be forever up for debate, filled stadiums with fans eager to see one of baseball’s true fireballers. “I don’t feel segregated,” said Paige at a press conference that day. “I’m proud to be wherever they put me in the Hall of Fame.”

Not all agreed.

“If the blacks go in as a special thing, it’s not worth a hill of beans. It’s the same rotten thing all over again,” said Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, the player who broke down big league baseball’s color barrier in 1947. “They deserve to be in it but not as black players in a special category. Rules have been changed before. You can change rules like you change laws if the law is unjust.”

And the rules were changed with Kuhn and Hall of Fame President Paul Kerr announcing on July 8, 1971, that Paige and future inductees would be given full membership. So it was on Aug. 9, 1971, five years and two weeks after Williams made his bold pronouncement, that Paige did indeed became a Hall of Famer. “I am the proudest man on the earth today,” he said that the most wonderful occasion.

In all, 35 former Negro Leaguers have earned election to the Hall of Fame, including 17 Negro Leaguers and pre-Negro League figures inducted following a special election in 2006.

And in many ways, it all started 50 years ago on a stage outside the Hall of Fame—when Theodore S. Williams gave voice to those who had none.

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum