COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – If this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction class proved anything, it might be this: “Designated hitters are baseball players, too.”
With the induction of Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines in the 2019 class, the stigma that a designated hitter – a position created before the 1973 season — was somehow unworthy of baseball’s loftiest status has finally come to a merciful end.
While Baines gained induction status through the Today’s Game Era committee, which is composed of executives, former players and baseball writers, after failing to reach induction on the regular ballot, Martinez had to grind his way through the 10-year process, finally achieving the necessary votes to gain induction in his final year of eligibility.