Manley Is the First Woman Elected to the Hall of Fame

Effa Manley became the first woman elected to the baseball Hall of Fame when the former Newark Eagles executive was among 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues chosen yesterday by a special committee.

This year's Hall class -- 18, including former reliever Bruce Sutter -- is the biggest in history. The previous record was 11 in 1946.

Manley co-owned the New Jersey-based Eagles with her husband, Abe , and ran the business end of the team for more than a decade. The Eagles won the Negro Leagues World Series in 1946 -- one year before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier.

Manley was white, but married a black man and passed as a black woman, said Larry Lester , a baseball author and member of the voting committee.