Rather, the Hall of Fame is supposed to showcase those men who have enriched the fiber of the game by virtue orf their athletic skill, managerial brilliance and qualities of human dignity. The issue here isn't Gil Hodges deserving a spot in the Hall of Fame. The underlying issue has a much to do with the values that those players, now representing baseball at Cooperstown, possess. Youngsters take the statistics on baseball cards as the sole measurement of a player's value to the game because adults spend too much time counting home runs and too little time considering the character of those who produce these hits. The game is more than just numbers.
Baseball is humanity in uniform.
It is impossible to open a book that documents the history of baseball and not find Hodges. He was a vital part of that great team of the late 1940's and 1950's, a team that included Hall of Fame players Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese in its lineup. Admired as an athlete, respected as a manager and , most important, loved as a man, perhaps he has been overlooked because, early in his career, he made the decision to rely solely on his skills with the bat and glove, and his demeanor as a human being, to speak for all that he did, and all that he was. The fact that so many of us, fans who continue to love his memory, are still championing for his ultimate place in the recorded history of baseball is an indication of how deep, and everlasting, one's loyalty to such a man can be. The history, tradition and folklore of baseball in America has been enriched because Gil Hodges once stood at first base in a small stadium in Brooklyn.