White Sox Get a ‘No’ on Minoso

Minnie Minoso has struck out in his bid to become the first major league baseball player to appear in six decades.

Fay Vincent, commissioner of baseball, directed the Chicago White Sox not to activate Minoso, 68, in the final days of the season, the American League team said Friday.

“We had never gotten to the point where we’d decided to let Minnie play, but now it’s a moot point,” Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the White Sox, said in a prepared statement. “Minnie had taken batting practice, and we had satisfied ourselves that he could have competed.”

Reinsdorf didn’t specify why Vincent took the action, but it had been reported that some baseball officials thought Minoso playing again was a publicity stunt that would hurt baseball’s integrity.

Minoso, a community representative for the White Sox, came out of retirement in 1976 to play in his fourth decade and in 1980 for his fifth decade. He was one for eight in 1976 and hitless in two at-bats in 1980.

The Cuban-born outfielder-infielder was a .298 hitter who had an uncanny ability to get hit by pitches during his prime in the 1950s with the White Sox and Cleveland Indians.

“Obviously I’m disappointed, but I accept and respect the decision,” Minoso, who played his first major league game in 1949, said of Vincent’s veto.

“Maybe the commissioner will let me play in the year 2000,” Minoso said in the White Sox statement.