Reevaluation of Pre-1945 Pitchers Worthiness of Cooperstown

Why does a pre-1945 non-MLB pitcher deserve to be in the MLB Hall of Fame anyway? We can hardly get the old Negro League legends into Cooperstown. Let's put Ruth, Young, Mathewson, and Gehrig, among many others into the Japanese Hall of Fame first before making a case for the Japanese Old Timers finding enshrinement in Cooperstown. Neither leagues' players ever played one inning on the others' fields.

I've posted much of the argument before here and in my articles, and won't rehash it at length here. One key difference is that Japan's Hall clearly holds itself out as uniquely Japanese, with emphasis on management types and including high schoolers and collegians in its Hall. Cooperstown likes to pretend it has all the greatest players of all time, but excludes Japanese players, which belies the pretension they exude. Also, what's wrong with celebrating all the greatest players in the game, regardless of where they played, in Cooperstown? I contend that doing so would be good for the game.

If you remain unconvinced, that's your privilege, just as it is mine to advocate a different path.

Jim Albright