Posts
I'm going to go out on a limb here and make an observation. When the powers that be at the Baseball Hall of Fame changed the rules for election via the Veterans Committee earlier this year (following three ballots in which no candidates received enough votes to gain entry), this is not what they had in mind:
Former commissioner Bowie Kuhn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the
Veterans Committee on Monday while his longtime adversary, players' union boss
Marvin Miller, was left out for the second time this year.
Former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss and managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth were also elected. Williams, who made his debut with the "Impossible Dream'' Red Sox in 1967 and went on to manage five other teams in a 21-year career, is the only living inductee.
Kuhn, who died in March, is the fourth of baseball's nine commissioners to be honored by the Hall. None of the remaining five is likely to be elected in the future, unless Peter Ueberroth's five year term is deemed long enough to merit consideration (I refuse to consider Bud Selig's candidacy right now - way too many questions surrounding his tenure as commish, starting with his role in the 1994 strike and the Steroid Era).
As for the other four newcomers - well, the Hall of Fame wanted the Veterans Committee to elect somebody, so the Veterans Committee elected four of them. If you look at it that way, I guess they did an okay job. (Side note: I really, really hope Signal to Noise writes about O'Malley's election.) I'm not entirely sold on any of them as Hall of Famers, but that's just me. I'm an elitist snob.
2 Comments:
It's a crime that Marvin Miller continues to be snubbed. He did more for baseball, as a business, than any owner in the last 35 years, and deserves to be recognized for it, IMO.
Of the rest, I'm kinda partial towards Southworth, since he managed the Cardinals during their halcyon years in the 40s. The other three; eh...
Your thoughts closely mirror mine, Bruce. I forget where I saw it, but someone mentioned that Miller's fate was in the hands of the same baseball executives he fought tooth and nail for twenty years - not exactly a group that could be expected to be impartial.
I'm not sure how I'd feel about this class under ordinary circumstances. Given the fact that they messed with the voting process again in an (ultimately successful) attempt to get more people in, though, I don't think I like it.
Let's hope the writers get it right in January.
Post a Comment