from Amazon
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Hall Of Fame
—In Gil Hodges’ 15th year of eligibility , he received 63% of the Holy Writer votes for the Hall of Fame. The Veteran’s Committee (VC) gave him: 62%, 65%, 61%.
—In Ron Santo’s 15th year with the Holy Writers, he received 43% of their votes. That was 1998. Since then, he’s been voted by the VC with these rates: 57%, 65%, 70%.
—Oliva somehow topped out at 47% in his 7th year, with 36% in his last year with the Holy Writers. The VC gave him: 59%, 56%, 57%.
—In Jim Kaat’s last year, the Holy Writers gave him 26% of the votes. The VC gave him: 54%, 63%.
It seems to me that whatever the intent of the VC, in practice what it does is uphold the standards of the BBWAA, while relaxing them somewhat in particular cases.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the HOF needs a paradigm shift. They could do like the Hall Of Merit and guarantee a certain number elected. Say if the VC meets once every 4 years, whoever gets the most votes, gets in. So Gil Hodges gets it in 2003, Santo in 2007. The next one in 2011 will give us either Kaat, Oliva, or Jim Rice. The focus should be on who gets in, not who was left off. Voting nobody in is not a good plan. Spacing it out every four years accomplishes that you get a celebration, and that you are not lowering the standards much, if at all.
As for the Holy Writers, they should have a “yes, maybe next year, never”, so that players of respectable quality can remain on the ballot, rather than relying on other voters’ wishes for them to stay on.
I have argued before that “yes, maybe, never” would be a very good start. Expanding the list of eligible voters to include those outside the print media would be a nice second step.
The outlook is not all grim in the long run. The worst Hall of Fame exclusion decision by the writers (Arky Vaughan) was eventually remedied by the VC. Perhaps the same will happen for Santo, Grich, Whitaker and Blyleven.