Get In or Get Out

The powers that be were really afraid that the Hall of Fame would become littered with plaques for a whole ton of undeserving Yankees, so they went ahead and revamped the credentials for the Veterans Committee. With the old Veteran's Committee, you always had to duck and wonder where the next Dom DiMaggio was coming from; a handful of undeserving candidates got inducted on the main ballot and the Hall suffers from bloat in general. But there was a fear that the Vet's Committee would stand in opposition of the dominant voting ideology and sneak a Roger Maris or a Thurman Munson through the back door.

Ron Santo and Gil Hodges picked up a few votes in this year's election, while Tony Oliva lost a few and Jim Kaat (fourth in overall voting) appeared on the ballot for the first time. Tony Oliva took it pretty hard during a spring training press conference and blamed geography/ playing in Minnesota for lack of exposure; the guy was a really great pure hitter (and led the AL in hits five times between 1964-1970) but not a HOFer by the magic standards. Hodges is probably even less interesting, though he has the Brooklyn Dodgers dynasty working in his favor. I can't believe Santo isn't in the Hall already -- extremely durable and he was probably the best 3B in the league during his prime. And one more thing about Jim Kaat, who has a lot of wins and a career ERA that compares favorably to the league average ERA: the guy won sixteen straight Gold Gloves at his position. Surely, that's some kind of record. Take that, Ozzie Smith!

What we've learned from the new Veterans Committee, which has now expanded to include everyone in the Hall of Fame: the passionate defense of Joe Torre's playing career will never approach a critical consensus. It's a red herring. Which is funny, because that was the whole reason for revamping the Veterans Committee in the first place. Turns out these guys are even more fiercely protective of the Hall's legacy than the Baseball Writers Association. Here's Tom Seaver on this year's deadlock, the second straight election with no new old-timers: ``I'm of the opinion it's going to be awfully hard [to elect additional members], and maybe that's how it should be.''

Yup.