Baseball Hall of Fame: Thoughts on the Veterans Committee
Even though the Christmas season is over, in the world of baseball people can still proclaim, “It’s that time of year.” The time period in this case refers to the annual voting for the MLB Hall of Fame, and that’s a topic which has a slew of complex and controversial facets.
By and large I believe when a candidate’s name comes up he belongs in the Hall if he’s a no-brainer candidate. Even the cerebrum-challenged Scarecrow of Oz can recognize the game’s creme de la creme. These are the players whose names evoke this response, “I don’t need to delve into the record books or stack him up against comparable players who did or did not get into the Hall of Fame. He’s going in.”
Most of the time this simple method for determining worthiness of men up for consideration works. Players who won 300+ games, who amassed a ton of hits, or who, every single year sharply stood out among their peers should get their ticket to Cooperstown stamped. There can be no doubt that, for example, a Stan Musial or a Hank Aaron belongs in Cooperstown. It takes the brain about a millisecond to come to that decision.
Admittedly, that method is not infallible, so at times closer scrutiny is called for, but I contend that most of the Hall of Famers who don’t belong among the elite were not mistakes made by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (more on some of their flaws, though, later). Instead, all too many inductees had their fair shot at getting into the Hall by earning 75% of the votes from the BBWAA, and only later got in via the generosity and at times possibly cronyism of the Veteran’s Committee, especially in previous years, before changes were recently made to this group. Not too long ago, for example, when the group voted Bill Mazeroski in (2001), there were some cries of cronyism heard. If one of the voters was, for instance, a close friend and/or teammate of a given candidate, it’s certainly feasible he would push for his favorite candidate and possibly sway some votes.
I have no major gripe with their decision not to allow any of the candidates into the Hall in 2014. The special committee voted nay on men such as Dick Allen, Jim Kaat, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Tony Oliva, Luis Tiant, and Maury Wills.
I do think longevity, durability, and a player’s body of works should be important factors in considering his value, so I could argue for Kaat’s induction— he contributed a lot to his teams for 25 years, racking up 283 wins while toiling tirelessly (he once led his league in innings pitched at 304 2/3). And many of Allen’s peers say that despite some bad press Allen received, he is deserving of Fame status. Again, though, if we want to keep the Hall truly exclusive, granting entrance only to the elite of the elite, and you leave Kaat and/or Allen out based on that criterion, I can live with that.
In Part Two we take a look at a handful of players who the Veteran’s Committee somehow felt deserved Hall of Fame glory despite statistics which are far from glittering. In fact, some of the numbers are downright lackluster.