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Sunday, June 08, 2008

Tom Taormina Should Be In

The Hall of Fame results are in, and for the most part I think the voters got it right. But one result greatly disappoints me: the rejection of Tom Taormina.

I can understand why it happened. By my count, 13 of the 24 managers now in the league weren't members when we lost Tom to cancer, and I'm betting that all the No votes for Tom came from that group. All those voters had to go by was the highlights of Tom's career as listed on the HOF ballot. In terms of games and titles won, Tom's record doesn't come close to Vaughn's or Kevin's--no one's does--but that's not why Tom Taormina should be in the BRASS Hall of Fame.

Tom's work as Silver League director was essential to the success of BRASS in the early years. Among other things, he ran the free agency process before most of us had email. Bids were written by hand on paper forms, submitted by regular mail, and resolved by a phone call from Tom to every manager who had a winning bid to pursue or drop or match.

I could go on, but suffice it to say there's a reason we renamed the BRASS Bucket after Tom. I hope his exclusion from the Hall is rectified next year.