Sixteen people chosen by the Baseball Hall of Fame will gather Sunday in a meeting room to debate historical greatness. They hold the power to change someone’s legacy in perpetuity. The 16 people of the Classic Baseball Committee are members of the Hall, executives and veteran media members. They will have an off-the-record, frank conversation with no sidebars or cell phones and debate the merits of eight players selected by a screening committee.
As someone fortunate enough in past years to have been selected to participate in the process, I can say there are no “favorites” for election and that every candidate gets an honest appraisal. If you can imagine a jury room, you can get a sense of how the work plays out. Baseball fans will argue the outcome; it’s part of the traditional debate about what defines ultimate greatness. But they should be confident about the integrity of the process.
