Joe Posnanski Can Get My Grandfather Into the Hall of Fame

 Last year I got this email from Craig Muder, the Director of Communications National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: 

Dear Mark,

Thank you very much for your note.

Please understand that the Hall of Fame is not—and never has been—involved in electing candidates for enshrinement. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) and the committees on managers, umpires, executives and long-retired players are the only bodies that elect eligible candidates to the Hall of Fame.

Election to the Baseball Hall of Fame is the greatest honor in all of sport. Only a little more than one percent of all the 23,000-plus men who have played Major League Baseball are enshrined at the Hall of Fame.

Joe Judge had a wonderful big league career and remains eligible for Hall of Fame election… Joe Judge would be considered in Classic Baseball Era election since he spent the entirety of his career in that era. To write a letter of support for Joe Judge to the Historical Overview Committee, you can use the following address:

Historical Overview Committee

Baseball Hall of Fame

25 Main Street

Cooperstown, NY  13326

All letters of support for any candidate are made available to the Historical Overview Committee should they ask to see them. Only letters sent by standard mail can be accepted.

Thank you again for your interest in the Baseball Hall of Fame. We hope to see you soon in Cooperstown!

Sincerely,

Craig Muder

Director of Communications

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

I’ve been trying to get my grandfather Joe Judge into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame for decades, and Craig Muder’s nice and formative note has encouraged me to try a new angle: I’m appealing directly to Joe Posnanski for help. Posnanski is one of America’s best-know baseball writers, the author of Why We Love Baseball, The Baseball 100, and my favorite, The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America. Posnanski’s forthcoming book is Fifty Seasons: Stories of the Baseball Years That Echo. In it Posnanski praises, with two entries, Barry Bonds, who cheated using steroids. It’s coming out in March.

Posnanski is also the author of “The Outsiders,” a list of the best baseball players who are not in the Hall of Fame.