Hall Case Name: Elander Victor Harris (June 10, 1905 – February 23, 1978)
Classification: Baseball
Career: The easiest candidate is Vic Harris because of how time has serviced the Negro leagues. You might know that baseball didn't allow black players to play baseball until the 1940s because of racist slime that operated the leagues. But there were many leagues of baseball for players and managers to engage in for the 20th century, one of which being the Negro National League. How this relates to Harris is that he began playing (according to the Baseball Reference page) in 1922 for Pittsburgh as a 17-year old. In 2020, MLB came to recognize that the play of these leagues was to be recognized as "major leagues", whether that was the East-West League or the two NNLs that would merit a few statistical curiosities we will get to later.
Records for Negro league games are ongoing, but with Harris, he played in three different decades for six different teams, and the most famous was for the Homestead Grays, who Harris joined in 1935. Harris became player-manager in 1936 and would manage the team in two different tenures: 1936-1942 and 1945-1948. As a player, Harris batted .303 in 645 games with 391 RBIs and 738 hits, which is pretty good...but the managing was better. Retroactively, due to his record of 547–278–20, Harris has a winning percentage of .663. That is the best winning percentage for any major league manager...ever. Harris won his first pennant with 1937 and the NNL2 when the Grays won 60 of their 80 games. The Grays repeated in 1938 with a 56-14 record before 1939 saw challenges. They finished 1st at 38-21-1 but that year saw a challenge because four teams were tabbed to play playoff games. The Grays made it to the Championship versus Baltimore but lost in five games. The Grays finished strong in 1940, 1941, and 1942: all 1st place, no Championship Series humbug and pennants for Harris. Speaking of 1942, that was the first year since 1927 of a "World Series" between black baseball teams, and the Grays met the Negro American League champ Kansas City Monarchs (as managed by Frank Duncan, who might have his own case soon), but the Grays lost in five games.
Harris stepped down to work at a defense plant after 1942 while playing a few games here and there. Candy Jim Taylor managed the next two seasons, which actually resulted in pennants and victories in the World Series. But Harris returned to manage in 1945, which saw another pennant but a loss to the Cleveland Buckeyes in the World Series. The Grays had "down" years in 1946 and 1947, finishing 3rd and 4th, respectively. But it came together one more time in 1948. They went 56-24-2 and finished in first place for the eighth time under Harris as manager. In the Championship Series, the Grays met Baltimore. They won in four games, albeit not without controversy. The Grays won the first two games before Game 3 was suspended due to curfew. The Grays lost Game 4 but when it came time to re-play Game 3, officials ruled it would be replayed from when the game was stopped: 8-4 lead for the Grays in the 9th, rather than the end of the completed inning of 4-4 after 8. Baltimore forfeited the game and therefore the series. The Grays met the Birmingham Black Barons in the World Series, who had Willie Mays as a player. Homestead would win the Series in five games, with a 10th inning 10-6 victory on October 5, 1948 being considered among the last of the "major league" games in black baseball. Sure, there was plenty of barnstorming to do with lesser crowds, but the stars were not nearly as bright (Mays played for the major league Giants not too long after). Harris managed for Baltimore in 1949 and Birmingham in 1950 before becoming a custodian for schools in Castiac, California.
The Case: Do I need to say too much about why a manager who won seven league pennants as a manager and nine in total as a player should be in? He should have been known as among the legends of all managers. Sure, sixteen people connected with the Grays (player, owner) have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but Harris deserved better.
Has He Been Voted On?: Harris has been considered three times: 2006 (ignored), 2021 (not enough votes), and 2025 (less than five votes, due to voters I will give plenty of criticism to in later days). The Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals, who have Hall of Fames/Honor to celebrate Gray legends due to the team playing in both regions have FAILED to include Harris in their rolls.
Verdict: On Behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, I hereby induct Vic Harris immediately on this day.
