COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- They gathered Sunday night at the fabled Otesaga Hotel, all 40 living members of baseball's Hall of Fame.
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The Hall of Fame is supposed to be for 1 percent of all the people who played. And it should remain that way. ” |
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— Joe Morgan |
All of them knew that the next day, major changes in the voting process for the Hall were about to be announced, drastically altering a system that has changed very little in the last half-century.
The feeling was just about unanimous:
It's about time.
"One of the great players there -- and I'm not going to mention his name -- said, 'It's becoming too easy to get into the Hall of Fame,' " said Joe Morgan. "And I think a lot of guys agree. The Hall of Fame is supposed to be for 1 percent of all the people who played. And it should remain that way."
But will it?
Nobody knows yet whether the obliteration of the old Veterans Committee process, which was announced Monday, will make it harder or easier for players to get their plaques hung on the most famous wall in Cooperstown. But here is what we do know:
Nobody should complain about allowing players of the stature of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan to play a role in selecting future Hall of Famers. And starting with the next election by the new incarnation of the Veterans Committee in 2003, two-thirds of that committee will be comprised of all the living Hall of Famers.
Nobody will miss the raised eyebrows over the way the old Veterans Committee conducted its business. The days of 15 men politicking each other and voting behind locked doors is over. Every name on the ballot of the new Veterans Committee will be announced. And the vote totals for every player -- not just the winners -- will be revealed.
No player can now grumble about being snubbed by the writers for being lousy interviews or being considered the fourth-best player on a great team. All players who get lopped off the writers' ballot for any reason -- except Pete Rose and Joe Jackson, who remain suspended -- will now get a second chance to be considered by the new, improved Veterans Committee.
It's about time all of that happened. And here's why:
The Veterans
The old Veterans Committee was a strange and mysterious body whose work was as secretive as it was inexplicable to the general public.
Three members of the former committee attended Monday's press conference announcing its demise -- legendary baseball writers Jerome Holtzman and Leonard Koppett, as well as former Braves and Expos president John McHale. All three said they'd never seen any evidence of behind-the-scenes conspiracies or any other type of electoral hanky panky.
But whether there is, there isn't or there has ever been, the Veterans Committee has elected some dubious candidates over the years.
After 18 seasons catching in the big leagues, Rick Ferrell never got more than one vote by the baseball writers in any Hall of Fame election. But he was elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee.
After 16 seasons as a big-league first baseman, George Kelly never got more than five votes from the writers. But he, too, was elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee.
The old committee had 15 members -- five ex-players, five executives and five media members. The new committee will be far more diverse and more populous.
Besides the living players and managers in the Hall, the new Veterans Committee also includes all living Hall of Fame sportswriters (elected via the Spink Award) and all living Hall of Fame broadcasters (elected via the Frick Award).
So the new electorate will be 90 members strong and will include voters ranging from Stan Musial to Tommy Lasorda to Vin Scully. But as in the current writers election -- which remains unchanged -- a candidate would need 75 percent of the vote from the Veterans Committee voters to make it. And who knows whether players will be more or less likely to agree on the candidates they vote for?
Morgan said he has talked to many players about that very question -- "and the only consensus," he said, "was that writers know more about all the players than players know about all the players.
"I mean, I played in the National League a lot of years. So if you ask me about a National League player, I'll know him. But if you ask me about an American Leaguer, I probably won't know him. ... So I think players realize the writers do know more about all the players than players do."
The suspicion -- not from players, obviously -- is that players might be more likely to vote for their friends or have a whole different voting agenda than writers, who are -- at least theoretically -- more detached from the people they are voting on.
"But I would ask you this," Morgan countered. "Are all the baseball writers ever above reproach? Are they not voting for players they don't like? And why didn't Willie Mays or Hank Aaron get 100 percent of the vote?"
Morgan predicted the players would be "very serious and conscientious" about their role in all this. And if they are, their perspective is a welcome -- and overdue -- part of the process.
The second-chance gang
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Another shot
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Below are the non-Hall of Famers with the most hits, homers and victories whose names are no longer on the ballot:
MOST HITS
1. Vada Pinson 2,757
2. Al Oliver 2,743
3. Rusty Staub 2,716
4. Bill Buckner 2,715
5. Doc Cramer 2,705
6. Willie Davis 2,561
7. Buddy Bell 2,514
8. Mickey Vernon 2,495
9. Ted Simmons 2,472
MOST HOMERS
1. Dave Kingman 442
2. Darrell Evans 414
3. Graig Nettles 390
4. Dwight Evans 385
5. Frank Howard 382
6. Norm Cash 377
7. Rocky Colavito 374
8. Gil Hodges 370
9. Lee May 354
10. Dick Allen 351
MOST WINS
1. Jack Powell 245
2. Jim McCormick 244
3. Frank Tanana 240
4. Sam Jones 229
5. Mel Harder 223
5. Paul Derringer 223
7. Hooks Dauss 222
7. Jerry Koosman 222
9. Joe Niekro 221
10. Jerry Reuss 220
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For years now, a number of baseball writers -- including this one -- have been lobbying for a change in the rule that dumps players off the ballot in any year in which they don't get 5 percent of the vote.
If a decent segment of the writers' voting population is either going to A) not vote for any player in his first year on the ballot or B) vote only for the super-elite players in their first year on the ballot, deserving candidates are going to get lopped off the ballot before many voters have ever seriously considered them.
A four-time batting champ, Bill Madlock, got bounced off the ballot that way. So did Bobby Grich, Larry Bowa, Ted Simmons and the all-time saves leader, Jeff Reardon.
At the time, they thought they had no chance of becoming a Hall of Famer for the rest of their lives -- because the old Veterans Committee wasn't even allowed to consider them. It was outrageous.
What happened Monday essentially brought their candidacy back to life.
Even the Baseball Writers Association of America has no problem with that.
"What could be more American," asked BBWAA secretary-treasure Jack O'Connell, "than giving people a second chance?"
The Baseball Writers Association will still be involved, serving as a screening committee to help determine which 25 to 30 players get on the Veterans Committee ballot in any given year. So the system of checks and balances here would make Thomas Jefferson proud.
"The writers understand there should be an appeals process," Morgan said. "Sometimes, mistakes are made, and people get overlooked who deserve a second look. This gives them that second look."
It also gives a second look to a candidate like Joe Torre, who spent 15 years on the writers' ballot and never quite made it as a player -- but is a lock as a manager, or at least as a reward for his contributions as a player and manager.
Can anyone out there possibly construe that as a bad thing?
In fact, it will be fascinating to see whether the players have a totally different perspective on the Ron Santos and Jeff Reardons who never made it the first time -- or whether those players will meet the same fate among their peers that they met in the writers' vote.
"We still won't be able to vote anyone in by ourselves," Morgan said. "I don't think it should be just Hall of Famers voting to bring the veterans in, or just writers voting. This, to me, is now the best of all worlds."
Think for a moment about just how much all those worlds have changed in the last half-century. So shouldn't the Hall of Fame get around to changing, too?
It's about time.
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Rumblings and Grumblings appears each week.
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