Posted on 03/02/2005 1:27:02 PM PST by nypokerface
TAMPA, Fla. - Gil Hodges, Ron Santo and everyone else on the ballot fell short Wednesday as once again the baseball Veterans Committee failed to elect anyone to the Hall of Fame.
Hodges and Santo came the closest with 65 percent — 75 percent was needed for induction — each falling eight votes shy. Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat were the only other players to be picked on more than half of the 80 ballots.
In 2003, the redesigned committee also pitched a shutout. There will not be another election until 2007, when managers, umpires and executives are due to be considered.
The current 83-member committee includes the 60 living Hall of Famers plus eight members of the writers' wing, 14 members of the broadcasters' wing and one member of the old Veterans Committee. All but three turned in their paper ballots this year.
Hodges, the former Brooklyn first baseman and New York Mets manager, fell 11 votes short in 2003, when 61 votes were needed for election. Santo was 15 votes shy that year.
Minnesota hitting star Tony Oliva was third among the 25 players on the ballot this year with 45 votes, a drop of three. Jim Kaat, on the Veterans ballot for the first time, got 43 votes. New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, a former NL MVP, was fifth with 36 votes, an increase of seven.
Maury Wills was next with 26, followed by Vada Pinson (23), Luis Tiant (20) and Roger Maris (19).
Thurman Munson and old-time pitcher Smoky Joe Wood each received only two votes.
The old Veterans Committee, which met annually, had 15 members in most years and was criticized for cronyism. The Hall changed the system after Bill Mazeroski, a career .260 hitter with a great glove, was elected in 2003.
You mean Pete Rose didn't make it again?.............
Louis Tiant and Jim Rice get STIFFED again...
Plenty of nominees to the Hall of Shame, however.
That headline is another one of those "Life Imitates The Onion" stories.
I was betting he would.
It's hard to believe Roger Maris has so few votes. People now don't know what a great player he was as well as a class act of a person. Try to rent "61" and you'll realize how great Roger Maris was!
Rice isn't eligible for Vets Committee yet....
title slightly misleading, some were elected to the HOF this year, just not from the separate old timers list.
LOL! I bet he would, too..........
Hall of Fame has little meaning without Rose....what a vindictive exclusion...For all his failures off the field (and I have never liked him personally) he clearly was a really great ball player..
I love it. Baseball has finally become so elite that no players can get into the HoF!
I got no beef with this. The HOF shouldn't induct people every year "just because" kind of like the NFL does.
While I think many of the guys who fell short this year were really good players, none of them make me forget:
Carlton
Seaver
Ryan
Gibson
Koufax
Feller
Johnson
Spann
Alexander
Cobb
Greenberg
Aaron
Mays
Musial
Ruth
Gehrig
Jackson (Reggie, not shoeless)
Foxx
Williams
DiMaggio (Joe, not Dom)
Carew
Clemente
Just a few names that popped into my head.
I'm all for high standards at the Hall of Fame.
Hard to believe that Maris & Hodges aren't in the Hall???
Hodges
18 years in the Majors, with Brooklyn, Los Angeles and New York.
- Hit at least 30 home runs in six years, including five years in a row from 1950 to 1954
- During those years, he hit 40 or more home runs twice
- Had over 100 RBIs each season from 1949 to 1955
- Hit 370 career home runs
- Had a career batting average of .273
- Had a career slugging average of .487
- Played in seven World Series
and
Maris:
12 years in the Majors
Set Baseball's Single Season Home Run Record (61 in 1961)
- 275 Career Home Runs
- Two-time Most Valuable Player in American League (1960 & 1961)
- Led American League in RBI's (1960 & 1961)
- Gold Glove Award Winner (1960)
- Seven World Series (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968)
- Six World Series Home Runs
all this with noooooo steroids!!!
Truth be told......They probably don't have anymore room in the Hall for those plaques and are hoping to get some sort of government grant to expand the Hall... ;-)
I agree. And when you consider the frauds who are currently cheating their way into the record books, the "concensus Hall of Famers," the transformation of MLB into "Total Sham" is almost complete.
Can't believe Ron Santo missed it again! He has numbers that rank him among the best third basemen of all time. He ranks in the top 100 all time in HR's, RBI's, total bases, walks, sacrifice flies. He won 5 straight gold glove awards from 1964 through 1968. He played in 9 All Star games. And can you believe he played with type 2 diabetes his entire career and nobody knew it. Sad state of affairs! I hope he makes it in while he is still alive.
Being manager of the '69 Miracle Mets is another feather in Hodges' cap. Maris was also a superb fielder with an excellent throwing arm. Both Hodges and Maris are deserving of HOF status, as is Santo. How can Bill Mazeroski get in and not these guys?
No induction weekend this year. The Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce will not be amused.
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