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.