In 1964 the Cardinals outlasted the Yankees in a seven-game World Series, signaling the last gasps of the great Yankees dynasty. The Beatles invaded America. LBJ took office with a Cold War raging, and the Vietnam war escalated. The U.S. Air Force investigated farmers tales of UFOs picking them up at truck stops and, equally mysteriously, the International League (IL) Hall of Fame vanished into thin air.
“No one is really sure how or why it ended,’’ current IL president Randy Mobley said. “It just did.’’
From 1947 to 1964, the now-defunct International League Baseball Writers Association inducted 51 men, the most prominent being Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier first in the minors with the Montreal Royals before breaking the major-league color barrier in 1947.
The Hall was reborn in conjunction with the Triple-A league’s 125th anniversary in 2008, Mobley inducted former league presidents Harold Cooper Jr. and George Sisler Jr. posthumously. |
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There will be a four-year transitional period in which an IL executive committee will select inductees “to allow us to catch up.” After that, a group of writers and club executives will take over that role.
When Mobley made the announcement last summer in Rochester, a reproduction of the original plaque, featuring the names of the 51 original members, was presented, as the original was lost over the years.
Rather than hanging the plaques on a wall in the IL offices in Dublin, Ohio, the Hall of Fame will be a traveling exhibit that will pass through all 14 cities.
Unlike the PCL Hall of Fame, the class in the IL is quite large. The announcement was made during the off season. MLN’s editors to honor these talented stars from the storied history of the International League as we come to the midway point in the season, and consider today’s stars.
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