Lou Piniella denied Baseball Hall of Fame induction, again. Bill White, Davey Johnson, too
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jim Leyland was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday night, the 23rd manager to be so honored.
For the second time, Lou Piniella finished one vote shy of induction. Leyland received 15 votes from the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, which included Joe Torre, Sandy Alderson, Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and former MLB commissioner Bud Selig.
The assigned committee weighed an eight-person ballot comprised of candidates whose main baseball contributions were from 1980 to the present.
Leyland, 78, guided the Pittsburgh Pirates, then-Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers to postseason appearances, and won a world championship with the 1997 Marlins during his 22-year managerial career.
He was a three-time Manager of the Year award winner and led three teams to the World Series.
Along with Piniella missing the requisite 75-percent for election were two other prominent candidates with New York ties in Bill White and Davey Johnson.
Winter meetings: Soto, Yamamoto and Ohtani: Our predictions for MLB free-agent signings, blockbuster trades
To a generation of Yankees fans, White was a familiar friend, entering their homes during Yankees telecasts and kibbitzing with fellow broadcaster Phil Rizzuto.
Of course, White was much more than an important voice in the Bronx.
An eight-time National League All-Star first baseman, White captured seven Gold Glove awards in his 13-year career and was a key member of the 1964 world champion St. Louis Cardinals.
White, 89, served as NL president from 1989-94, continuing his groundbreaking career after being the first African-American working as a regular play-by-play announcer for an MLB club.
Over his long career with the Yankees, Piniella held about every job imaginable in baseball – from player to manager, front office executive, scout and broadcaster.
Piniella won an AL Rookie of the Year as a player and was part of the 1977 and ’78 Yankees world championship clubs.
But Piniella, 80, made his mark as a manager, shocking the baseball world by guiding the Cincinnati Reds to a 1990 World Series sweep over the heavily favored Oakland Athletics and having success with the Seattle Mariners and Chicago Cubs.
In 2001, Piniella’s Mariners won an AL record 116 games, but fell to the Yankees in the AL Championship Series. He won three Manager of the Year awards.
Johnson, 80, is noted as the manager of the 1986 world champion Mets, guiding the club from out of its darkest era with his hiring by GM Frank Cashen two years earlier.
A big-league manager for 17 seasons, including the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals, Johnson posted a career .562 winning percentage – the 13th best among MLB managers with a minimum 10 seasons.
A two-time Manager of the Year Award winner, Johnson as an All-Star who played on four Orioles pennant winners and two world championship clubs, and his 43 homers with the Atlanta Braves in 1973 was a then-record for a second baseman.
White missed election by two votes. Johnson, Cito Gaston, umpires Ed Montague and Joe West, and executive Hank Peters each received less than five votes, with 12 votes necessary for election.
The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee is next scheduled to consider managers, executives and umpires in December 2026.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Lou Piniella, Bill White, Davey Johnson not elected to baseball hall
