In a ceremony in late June, the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame inducted its Class of 2019, which includes two-time NL MVP Dale Murphy, Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker, former Boston Red Sox CEO John Harrington, John Fitzgerald, a founder of The Baseball United Foundation, and Danny O’Connell, who scored the first-ever West Coast run in major league baseball history.
Hall honorees include players, managers, scouts, broadcasters, executives, and entertainers of Irish descent who have impacted the game of baseball in a positive way. The voting is conducted by past honorees and a panel of baseball historians.
John L. Harrington was for decades associated with the Red Sox, first as a member of owner Tom Yawkey’s ownership team and, later, as CEO of the operation in the 1990s and early 2000s when the team was a perennial challenger on the field. He also serves as the chairman of the Yawkey Foundation, which has awarded more than $500 million in grants to nonprofit organizations serving the people of New England and Georgetown, South Carolina, Tom Yawkey’s home, since 1977.
“This year’s class includes one of the best all-around players of the 1980s, the reigning NL Manager of the Year, an award-winning baseball documentarian, an iconic baseball executive, and one of baseball’s best broadcasters,” said Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s Pub, which features one of the country’s most extensive public displays of baseball memorabilia.
The game of baseball has welcomed immigrants from its earliest days, when an estimated 30 percent of players claimed Irish heritage. Many of the game’s biggest stars at the turn of the 20th century were Irish immigrants or their descendants, including Michael “King” Kelly, Roger Connor (the home run king before Babe Ruth), Eddie Collins, Big Ed Walsh and managers Connie Mack and John McGraw.