Edward Stack, the former president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the creator of the eligibility rule that continues to prevent the election of Pete Rose, has passed away at the age of 88 due to complications from an injury that resulted in the amputation of his left leg. Stack, who worked at the Hall from 1961 to 2000, faced a controversial decision in 1991 regarding Rose, who had been permanently banned from baseball for gambling. Despite the prospect of Rose’s 4,256 career hits, the most in baseball history, Stack championed a rule change that was unanimously approved by the Hall’s board, disqualifying anyone on baseball’s permanently-ineligible list from being considered for the Hall. Stack believed that there should be a moral dimension to being elected to the Hall.
Edward William Stack, also known as Ed, was born on February 1, 1935, in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and spent most of his life living and working in Cooperstown. Despite suffering from polio at 14 and walking on weakened legs for the rest of his life, Stack graduated from Pace College with a degree in business administration in 1956 and began working for the Clark family’s interests in Cooperstown, including the Baseball Hall of Fame. Stack eventually became the Hall of Fame’s chairman in 1979, where he oversaw several construction projects that expanded and improved the museum, including the addition of a three-story west wing in 1980 and a $7.5 million expansion in 1989.
Stack’s former colleagues and family members praise his ability to honor the Clark family’s vision and bring it forward, including the current Hall of Fame chairwoman, Jane Forbes Clark. Stack is survived by his wife, Christina Stack, who he met while she was a summer waitress at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, his three daughters, Suzanne, Kimberly Ann Stack, and Amy Stack, and his sister, Barbara Aasheim.
In 1995, Stack appeared in a dream of Leon Day, a star Negro National League pitcher who was elected to the Hall by the veterans committee, but never received his ring. Stack arrived in Day’s hospital room with a box containing the emblematic ring, but Day passed away six days later before he was able to receive it.
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