How can you have an Irish American HOF WITHOUT Murph is my question? Actually how can you have any HOF without him? And I don’t just mean baseball. He should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame 2016 Ballot Includes Kevin Millar, Daniel Murphy, Eric Byrnes and Others
Hall Recognizes Players, Executives, Journalists and Entertainers of Irish Descent
New York, NY, March 15, 2016 – As the calendar approaches St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame (IABHOF) today announced the ten potential honorees whose names will be on the 2016 induction ballot. They include current and former players, managers, broadcasters, and baseball executives, while voting will be conducted by IABHOF inductees and a panel of baseball historians.
The winners will be announced on March 31st, and the induction ceremony will be held during the baseball season at Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.), home of the IABHOF. The 2016 Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame ballot candidates are:
Current and Former Players
· Kevin Millar: Member of 2004 Red Sox who helped end Boston’s 86-year World Series title drought
· Daniel Murphy: Former Met whose post-season heroics in 2015 helped propel New York to its first trip to the World Series since 2000.
· Eric Byrnes: Former member of the Oakland A’s and Arizona Diamondbacks, as well as MLB Network contributor.
Broadcasters
· Tom McCarthy: Play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies’ broadcasts.
· Ed Coleman: Longtime WFAN correspondent for the New York Mets.
· Dave Wills: Play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Legends/Hall of Famers
· Andy Leonard: Recognized as the first native of Ireland (Co. Cavan) to play in the Major Leagues.
Executives
· Joe McDonald: Longtime executive with the New York Mets.
· Guy Gallagher: Visitors’ clubhouse manager for the Tampa Bay Rays and chief communications officer for MLB Clubhouse Managers Association.
· Nicole McFadyen: Baltimore Orioles head groundskeeper, the second woman to ever hold such position in MLB.
“This year’s ballot includes two post-season legends (Millar and Murphy), three broadcasters who are still at the top of their game, and only the second woman to be a head groundskeeper in the Major Leagues,” said Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s Pub, which features one of the country’s most extensive public displays of baseball memorabilia.
Results of the voting will be announced in April. The induction ceremonies will take place this summer at Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.), home of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. Voters include past inductees into the IABHOF and a distinguished panel of baseball historians.
The Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame will also present its third annual Pete Caldera-Duke Castiglione “I Didn’t Know He Was Irish” Award, which goes to an honoree whose Irish roots are not widely known.
With the blessing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Foley’s, a popular destination among baseball players, executives, umpires and fans, created the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize players, managers, executives, journalists, and entertainers of Irish descent. Inductees are chosen based on a combination of factors, including impact on the game, popularity on and off the field, contributions to society, connections to the Irish community, and, of course, ancestry.
The game of baseball has welcomed immigrants from its earliest days, when an estimated 30 percent of players claimed Irish heritage. Many of the game’s biggest stars at the turn of the 20th century were Irish immigrants or their descendants, including Michael “King” Kelly, Roger Connor (the home run king before Babe Ruth), Eddie Collins, Big Ed Walsh and managers Connie Mack and John McGraw. Today, major league teams regularly sign players born in Latin America, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere.
Shaun Clancy, an amateur baseball historian, created the Hall after learning about the rich heritage of Irish Americans during the sport’s infancy – a legacy overshadowed in recent years by other ethnicities. He decided to celebrate his roots and those who helped make the game great by creating a shrine to Irish Americans in baseball in 2008.
“Starting Nine” and Subsequent Inductees
The “Starting Nine” inductees in 2008 were: the late Mets and Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, Yankee announcer John Flaherty, sportswriter Jeff Horrigan, NY Mets groundskeeper Pete Flynn, retired sluggers Mark McGwire and Sean “The Mayor” Casey, Kevin Costner, star of Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, legendary owner-manager Connie Mack, and longtime official scorer and sports columnist Red Foley.
2009 inductees: Walter O’Malley, longtime Brooklyn and LA Dodgers owner; sluggers Steve Garvey and Paul O’Neill, Jim Joyce; veteran sportscaster Vin Scully, and Ed Lucas, a blind reporter who has covered New York baseball for four decades.
2010 inductees: Tim McCarver, veteran TV analyst and former player; Bob Murphy, longtime Mets announcer; Michael “King” Kelly, the game’s first superstar; Yankees GM Brian Cashman; Bill James, famed statistician and an advisor for the Boston Red Sox.
2011 inductees: Nolan Ryan, baseball’s all-time strikeout king, Big Ed Walsh, baseball’s all-time ERA leader, legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw, New York Yankees trainers Gene Monahan and Steve Donohue, “Baseball’s Balladeer” Terry Cashman, and Chuck Lennon, former player, coach and lifetime fan of Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball.
2012 inductees: Jimmy Breslin, author of Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?; Tom Kelly, two-time World Series champion manager with the Minnesota Twins; Gene Michael, former player, scout and GM responsible for building the modern Yankee dynasty; “Walpole Joe” Morgan, popular former player, scout and manager of Boston Red Sox; Jeff Nelson, reliever, four-time World Series champion with the Yankees; “Wee Willie” Keeler, Dead Ball era legend; and Mike Roarke, credited with teaching the split-fingered fastball to Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter and a supporter in the development of baseball in Ireland.
2013 inductees: Popular former Mets Rusty Staub and Joe McEwing; longtime owner of the LA Dodgers Peter O’Malley; Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Madden of the New York Daily News; and award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe Dan Shaughnessy.
2014 inductees: veteran pitcher David Cone, longtime umpire Tom Gorman, Bill Shea, the driving force in bringing National League baseball back to New York in 1962, veteran baseball photographer Dave Schofield, and Hal McCoy, a longtime beat writer for the Cincinnati Reds.
2015 inductees: Mike Sweeney, five-time All-Star and former captain of the KC Royals, Dave O’Brien ESPN sportscaster and Red Sox radio announcer, Jack McKeon, a two-time NL Manager of Year whose 2003 Marlins won the World Series, Shannon Forde, a longtime member of New York Mets p.r. staff, and minor league baseball team owner Bill Murray.
Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.) is home of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. A popular destination among baseball players, executives, umpires, media, and fans, Foley’s is located across from the Empire State Building. The “Irish Bar with a Baseball Attitude” features walls adorned with more than 3,200 autographed balls, bobbleheads, game-worn jerseys, stadium seats and other artifacts that make it the premier baseball bar in New York and one of the best sports bars in America. For more information, call (212) 290-0080 or visit www.foleysny.com or www.facebook.com/FoleysNYPub.
How does the voting work & how many can be inducted?