Having been born a Dodger fan, I didn’t pay too much attention to non-Dodgers as a youngster. But like most kids growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, I had a respectable baseball card collection. In fact, I saved up and spent most of my allowance (25 cents a week) on baseball cards. I couldn’t wait for each new series to come out – usually every six weeks or so – and I would buy a full box the when they finally arrived at Jay Scott Drug Store in Burbank – a mile and a half bike ride from my house.

Because I would buy a full box at a time – usually on the very day they came out – I would get quite a few “doubles” and “triples” which were my “traders” to get cards that I was missing from earlier series. My secret, of course, was that I wouldn’t tell the neighborhood kids that a new series had just come out so my traders were cards that they didn’t have.

Year in and year out it always seemed that most of my doubles and triples were the same 10 or 12 guys. Among them was a guy with a funny name (at least funny to a 10-year-old kid) – Minnie Miñoso. It just seemed that I always had a bunch of his cards every year – many of which ended up clothes-pinned to the spokes of my bicycle to give it that motorcycle sound (at least in my mind it did).

Minnie Miñoso’s 1964 Topps baseball card.

Naturally, I would look at the stats on the back of the baseball cards and I began to take notice that this Minnie guy continually put up some pretty good numbers year after year – especially his batting average and his stolen bases. I also noticed that he was a nine-time All-Star (who does that anymore?) and a three-time Gold Glove winner.

The point to all of this is that even as a youngster and even though Miñoso was never a Dodger, I recognized that he was a very good baseball player. And while he never received more than 21 percent of the vote during his 15 years of eligibility on the Hall of Fame ballot, he was every bit worthy of induction.

“When I watched Minnie Miñoso play, I always thought I was looking at a Hall of Fame player,” said White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. “I never understood why Minnie wasn’t elected.

When you realize that Miñoso posted a .298 career batting average and a .389 career on-base percentage in his 17 big league seasons, you can certainly understand Reinsdorf’s dismay. In fact, if a guy put up those kind of numbers today he’d be making well over $10 million a year.

On Sunday morning I awoke to the news that Minnie Miñoso had died. He was 90 years old.*

Miñoso threw out the ceremonial first pitch at U.S. Cellular Field on April 26, 2014 at the age of 89.
(Photo credit – David Banks)

In an era where he played against guys named Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays (to name only three), Minnie Miñoso was greatly overshadowed. But for this longtime baseball fan, he will always have a special place in my heart.

God Bless You, Minnie – and thank you. Just thank you.

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* Baseball-Reference.com lists Miñoso at 89 years old at the time of his death but the White Sox claim he was 90.