In 2008, Foley’s, which is never short of fun, promotional programs to generate interest and awareness, inducted its “Starting Nine,” the first members of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame  (IABHOF), with such notables as Connie Mack,  Tug McGraw, Kevin Costner, and the bar’s namesake, “Red” Foley.  Last year it added six, including Walter O’Malley, Vin Scully and Paul O’Neill.

Today Clancy announced this year’s IABHOF nominees, in six categories:

HALL OF FAMERS and LEGENDS
Big Ed Walsh – Baseball’s All-Time ERA Leader
Michael “King” Kelly – Baseball’s First Superstar
“Mighty Casey” of the Mudville Nine in “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer

CURRENT LIVING EX-PLAYERS
Dale Murphy, Long-time Atlanta Brave, two-time NL MVP
Joe McEwing – “Super Joe,” now a manager in the White Sox minor league system

MANAGERS
John McGraw – Legendary manager of the NY Giants
Tom Kelly – Minnesota Twins two-time World Series winning manager

BROADCASTERS
Tim McCarver – Network TV analyst
Bob Murphy – Longtime Mets Broadcaster

EXECUTIVES
Brian Cashman – GM, NY Yankees
Bill James – Stastician, Red Sox Consultant

ENTERTAINERS
John Fogerty – Writer/Singer of “Centerfield”
Bill Murray – Cubs Fan, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” singer at Wrigley Field
John Cusack – Star of Eight Men Out
Rosie O’Donnell – Co-star of A League of Their Own

Voters include past inductees into the IABHOF and a panel of baseball historians.  Results will be announced next month.

“It’s a strong and deserving class of nominees for the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame this year.  All of these men — and one woman — have made significant contributions to the game,” said Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s, which features one of the country’s most extensive public displays of baseball memorabilia outside of Cooperstown.

With the blessing of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Foley’s, a popular destination among baseball players, executives, umpires and fans, created the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize players, managers, executives, journalists, and entertainers of Irish descent.  Inductees are chosen based on a combination of factors, including impact on the game, popularity on and off the field, contributions to society, connections to the Irish community, and, of course, ancestry.

The game of baseball has long 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, and NY Giants manager John McGraw.  Today, major league teams regularly sign players born in Latin America, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere.

Josh is a former catcher on the British National Team and he has authored two books on baseball in Europe – “Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History” and “British Baseball And the West Ham Club: History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London.”

Josh does a great job of explaining the current state of baseball in Europe – from the top leagues in Italy and Holland to countries where the sport is just taking hold, like Hungary and Ireland – click here to listen

Planet Hardball Podcast | Josh Chetwynd on the Top European Baseball Clubs

You can subscribe to the Planet Hardball Podcast on iTunes. Click here to check it out.

The official release from Foley’s NY spokesman John R. Mooney:

New York, NY (July 1, 2009) – Longtime Brooklyn and LA Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, sluggers Steve Garvey and Paul O’Neill, longtime umpire Jim Joyce, veteran sportscaster Vin Scully and Ed Lucas, a blind reporter who has covered the Yankees and Mets for more than 40 years, will be inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at Noon.

The Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame is housed at Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (18 W. 33rd St.) in Manhattan and, with a blessing from Cooperstown, recognizes current and former players, managers, executives, journalists and entertainers of Irish descent.

The game of baseball has welcomed immigrants from its earliest days — when an estimated 30 percent of players claimed Irish heritage — up to today as major league teams regularly sign players born in Latin America, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere. Honorees are chosen based on a combination of factors: impact on the game, popularity, contributions to the community, and, of course, ancestry.

“Our goal is to celebrate the contributions of Irish Americans to the game of baseball, both on and off the field,” said Shaun Clancy, founder of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame and owner of Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant, where it is housed. “We’re honored that Steve Garvey and Peter O’Malley, who will represent his father and the O’Malley family, are flying in to attend the ceremony.”

“The Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame is the first New York City organization in the past half-century to honor Walter O’Malley. His Dodger teams won four World Series and 11 N.L. Pennants during his years of ownership,” Clancy continued. “Significantly, he was co-owner and legal counsel for the Dodgers when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. This part of his resume had as much impact on the game as any of his other accomplishments, which also include his team’s legendary World Series victory in 1955.”

“This is a great honor,” said former Dodger great Steve Garvey, one of the most popular players of the 1970s and early 80s. “I’m as proud of my Irish roots as I am my accomplishments on the baseball field.”

“My father was most proud of his Irish heritage and would have loved this honor, particularly since it is in New York, where he was born,” said Peter O’Malley, son of the longtime Dodgers owner and a former president and owner of the team.

Many of baseball’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), all-time ERA leader Big Ed Walsh and NY Giants manager John McGraw. In fact, the large 1945 class of inductees enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame included nine Irish Americans: Roger Bresnahan, Dan Brouthers, Fred Clarke, Jimmy Collins, Ed Delahanty, Hugh Duffy, Hughie Jennings, King Kelly, and Jim O’Rourke.

Shaun Clancy, an amateur baseball historian, created the Hall after learning about the rich heritage of Irish Americans in the sport dating from its infancy – a legacy that has been overshadowed in recent years by other ethnicities. He decided to celebrate his roots and those who helped make the game great by creating a shrine to Irish Americans in baseball in 2008. Inductees include players, managers, team executives, umpires, journalists, broadcasters, entertainers. In addition to giving each inductee a copy of his plaque, Foley’s will make a donation to Umps Care and Ed Randall’s Bat For The Cure in their names.

“As an immigrant myself, I am so proud of the positive response to the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame from both the inductees and visitors. Learning the game helped me fall in love with America’s national past time and my adopted homeland,” said Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s, which features one of the country’s most extensive public displays of baseball memorabilia outside of Cooperstown. “We’re thrilled to host and celebrate the honorees here today and celebrate their impact on the game and the community.”

The 7×9 inch brass plaques feature the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame logo, an image of each inductee with a brief list of career and personal accomplishments, as well as Irish roots and/or connections and the date of induction. The plaques were designed by engravers Ashburns, Inc.

The “Starting Nine” inductees last year were: the late Mets and Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, Yankee announcer John Flaherty, sportswriter Jeff Horrigan, NY Mets groundskeeper Pete Flynn, retired sluggers Mark McGwire and Sean “The Mayor” Casey, Kevin Costner, star of Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, legendary owner/manager Connie Mack, and longtime official scorer and columnist Red Foley.

About Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant

A popular destination among baseball players, executives, umpires and fans, Foley’s NY Pub & Restaurant (www.foleysny.com) is located on 18 W. 33rd St., across the street from the Empire State Building. The “Irish bar with a baseball attitude” features walls adorned with 2,000 autographed baseballs, hundreds of bobbleheads, game-worn jerseys, stadium seats and other artifacts that make Foley’s the best baseball bar in New York and one of the best sports bars in America.

”We decided we should try and form an international team,” Mike Kindle said. ”We said, ‘Let’s get some uniforms and funding and go play.’ We were sitting in the boozer over a couple of pints. Over a couple of pints, it sounded good.”

In truth, the dream of an Irish National Baseball Team was far from the mind of Kindle until that day at the pub. The transplanted American had much lower expectations back in 1990, when he followed a bumper sticker titled “Irish Softball Association” to a muddy field of coeds playing recreational slo-pitch.

The Emerald Diamond takes you through the next 14 years of twists and turns that culminated in the Irish National Baseball Team’ bronze medal in the B Pool of the 2004 European Championships. Similarly, though, producer/director John Fitzgerald’s vision was not to make a movie — at least, not initially. His first inclination was to PLAY FOR, not film, Team Ireland.

”I found out about them and I said, ‘This is amazing,’ ” Fitzgerald said. ”I had no idea Ireland had a national team.” Though born in the USA, non-citizens can play if one of their grandparents was born in the country (this is how Mike Piazza qualified for Team Italy in the WBC in 2006). The former college ballplayer worked out with the Irish team for four months before finding out his grandmother — who held dual citizenship with the US and Ireland — was in fact born in New York. But in the meantime, Fitzgerald realized his contribution to Irish baseball could be much larger than fielding a few groundballs — he saw a story that had to be told.

Indeed, the plight and flight of baseball in Ireland reads like a Hollywood script — a story of like-minded underdogs reaching heights that others could never imagine. Though a documentary, the plot is not unlike that of the Keanu Reeves / Gene Hackman hit film “The Replacements”, “Major League”, or, as The New York Times Jack Curry aptly described, “Think of Rudy, the Notre Dame walk-on, and multiply it by about a dozen.”

The film begins with touching, unbelievable, and humorous insights from members of the original team, a ragtag bunch who ranged in age from 18 to 36, and included rugby players, “footballers”, a video store cashier, and a naturalized Mexican from Guadalaraja named Gus; they were “as green as they were proud” . They stole bases from the slo-pitch softball team, built a makeshift backstop from chicken wire, an outfield fence from construction netting, and played on a field so wet and slopey that today the site is only visited by licensed fishermen.

Their first international game came at the European Championships in 1996 against Czechoslovakia. The game opened with great optimism, as Gus cracked a base hit in Team Ireland’s first official at-bat. The good times did not last, though — Gus was picked off first and the team lost 23-2. True to their Irish heritage, the team was jubilant afterward — simply happy to be there, playing baseball. It is that passion, combined with tenacity and a good dose of self-depracating humor, that drove the team’s players to eventual respectability — and drives the story into your heart.

This week, you won’t see the Irish National Baseball Team in the WBC. The team does exist, and is light years beyond those days of infancy, but has recently hit wall. The removal of baseball from the Olympic games also resulted in the disappearance of funds for the baseball program in Ireland (as well as in many European countries), and without that support, the team has an uphill battle to compete against teams such as the Netherlands, Japan, or the Dominican Republic. In addition to the fact that those powerhouses are stocked with MLB players, Ireland still has other obstacles to overcome. Consider, for example, that a typical day during Team Ireland’s season feels like this: 35 degrees, light rain, 20 MPH wind gusts. They routinely play through torrential rainstorms and snow, and rarely call a game due to inclement weather. As pitcher Carmac Eklof described, “Anything up to the level of ‘holy crap I’m getting soaked’ is playable” Or as an Irish outfielder admitted, “I had to call time recently when I got hit in the eye with a hailstone.”

So, in between watching the WBC and eating corn beef and cabbage this week, watch “The Emerald Diamond” here on BaseballDigest.com — or better yet, buy the DVD so the family doesn’t have to crouch around your computer and be distracted by the ads floating on the bottom of the screen. The film gives you a very real, heartwarming, and inspiring story about a group of people who truly love baseball. It’s a wonderfully entertaining film — with or without a couple of pints.

The Emerald Diamond – Deluxe Edition DVD

The Emerald Diamond – Limited Edition Collector’s DVD

Important Timecodes in The Emerald Diamond:

0:00 – American Mike Kindle sees an Irish Softball Association bumpersticker while walking through Dublin in the early 1990s. The seeds for the Irish National Team is planted.

1:00 – Kindle assembles a ragtag group of Irish natives and American expatriates with little or no baseball experience. They teach themselves the rules and play on rugby and soccer fields in the rain. They have no uniforms and very little equipment.

4:00 – Ireland competes in the 1996 European Championships where they will be destroyed by teams with sketchy baseball pedigrees, including the Czech Republic,Norway, Poland and Lithuania.

6:00 – The first hit in Irish National Team history was by Gus Hernandez – a Mexican who gained Irish citizenship by marrying an Irish woman. Hernandez is immediately picked off first base and the Irish lose their first game by a score of 23-2.

11:30 – Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the first real baseball fields in Ireland.

18:00 – The Irish head to the European Championships with a new player from New York. The team loses all of its luggage during a connecting flight. They appear at the Opening Ceremonies in T-shirts and shorts.

24:30 – After losing their first 3 games at the 2000 Euros, the Irish get drunk at the field the night before a game. They somehow win the next morning’s game, their only victory of the tournament.

30:15 – The Irish National Team visits Fenway Park for an exhibition game against a local amateur team.

31:40 – A group of Cubans defects to Ireland and finds their way to the baseball fields that were built by Peter O’Malley.

35:35 – A look at baseball in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including a story about how Kindle and his Irish teammates accidentally drove into a Protestant parade and were interrogated by the police for being in the wrong place in uniforms with weapons (baseball bats).

41:00 – A group of Americans try to teach baseball to Irish kids in County Cork and Dublin.

Reviews for The Emerald Diamond

The New York Times
“Fitzgerald’s movie is a charming look at how baseball captivated some dedicated Irishmen… Think of Rudy, the Notre Dame walk-on, and multiply it by about a dozen.”
“A Whole New Ballgame in Ireland” by Jack Curry
February 10, 2006

The New York Post
“A terrific film!”
“Irish Have Own Field of Dreams” by Kevin Kernan
February 27, 2006

National Public Radio
“A tale of perseverance salted with humor and irrigated with beer.”
“Only a Game” review by Bill Littlefield
March 9, 2006

Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Remarkable baseball story!”
“Begosh and Begorrah! It’s Irish Baseball!”
March 16, 2006

The Irish Echo
“A homerun!”
“Pitching an Emerald” by Fiona Walsh
March 17, 2006

Indianapolis Star
“Heart-lifting doc that tracks the incredibly earnest players as they grow from lovable losers into genuine contenders.”
Review by Christopher Lloyd
June 2006

Purchase the DVD from Amazon:

The Emerald Diamond – Deluxe Edition DVD

The Emerald Diamond – Limited Edition Collector’s DVD