July 9, 2013 –The Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame announced today that former Bisons outfielders ERNIE YOUNG and DAVE ROBERTS and Buffalo News columnist/reporter MIKE HARRINGTON have been elected to the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame.

Young, Roberts and Harrington will be formally inducted during special Hall of Fame ceremonies before the Bisons fridaynightbash!® on July 19 as the Bisons host the Toledo Mud Hens (7:05 p.m.).

The Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2013 is the largest the Hall has inducted in one season since five members were inducted in 1996. The Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame now has 88 members.

Ernie Young

Ernie Young was the top run-producer for two of the best offensive clubs in the Bisons modern era. From 2004-2005, the Chicago, IL-native hit .289 with 47 home runs, 89 extra-base hits and 178 RBI in just 229 games to lead the Herd to the post season in each year.

Young’s first International League All-Star season with Buffalo in 2004 was punctuated by only the third 100-RBI season in the modern era. His 27 home runs and .919 OPS were at the heart of the best offense in the IL in over 60 years and powered Buffalo to an IL Governors’ Cup Championship. Young was an All-Star again in 2005, hitting 20 home runs and driving in 78 for the IL North division champs.

Young was a 10th round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics in 1990. He broke in with the A’s in 1994 and played in parts of eight big league seasons with Oakland, Kansas City, Arizona, Detroit and Cleveland.

Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts played parts of four seasons with the Bisons and is the club’s modern era stolen base leader with 97 steals. He hit .286 in 276 career games in Buffalo and also ranks in the team’s Top 10 in runs scored (6th -194) and total hits (8th -305).

Born in Japan and raised in California, Roberts first joined the Bisons in 1998 and returned in the playoffs to help the Herd to its first Governors’ Cup Championship in nearly 40 years. In both 1999 and 2000, the speedster stole a team-best 39 bases, earning International League All-Star honors in ’99. He added to his Bisons record with 17 more stolen bases in 2001 before becoming a regular in the Major Leagues.

Roberts’ 10-year big league career included 832 games with the Indians, Dodgers, Red Sox, Padres and Giants. While he stole 243 bases during the regular season, he will forever be known for his ninth-inning steal for the Red Sox in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS that helped Boston rally from a 3-0 deficit in games to the Yankees before winning their first World Series Championship in 86 years. 

Mike Harrington

Mike Harrington is the lead baseball reporter and columnist for The Buffalo News and has closely covered the Bisons in every season since the team moved downtown.

The Amherst-native began his career at The News in 1987, took over as Bisons beat reporter in 1993 and debuted the Sunday “Inside Baseball” column in 2004. He chronicled the Bisons’ championship campaigns in 1997, 1998 and 2004 as well as the 1998 Triple-A World Series in Las Vegas and the 2012 Triple-A All-Star Game in Buffalo. In 2006, he was made a voting member of the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame Committee.

Harrington is a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and has covered more than 30 MLB postseason series, including every World Series since 2000. He has won several state and national awards for his stories and the Inside Pitch blog at Buffalonews.com. Harrington has also covered college basketball and the NHL during his tenure at The News.

Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame Committee

The Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame committee is charged with the task of screening all candidates eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame and to select for induction such persons who have made a significant contribution to Buffalo professional baseball, or such Western New Yorkers who have made a meaningful contribution to professional baseball generally.

The committee is comprised of Tom Burns, Bob Dicesare, Mike Harrington, Kevin Lester, Duke McGuire, Bob Miske, John Murphy and Pete Weber.

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