SAN DIEGO — The Veteran’s Committee has voted and the announcement is in: none of the ten candidates were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The candidates: Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Bob Howsam, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Billy Pierce, Luis Tiant and Maury Wills. Candidates needed 12 votes to make it in. The highest vote-getters were Dick Allen and Tony Oliva, who each received 11 votes. Here is a brief overview of the credentials of all of the candidates.
It’s probably worth noting that, at least for the players, being on the Veterans Committee ballot means that, at some point, the baseball writers considered their candidacies and found them lacking. So, on some level, no player oversight is so egregious that we should storm the castle or anything. Almost by definition they are borderline guys. It’s different for the executives and managers — Bob Howsam seems like a Hall of Fame executive to me — but for the players, I get that they’re all tough choices.
Still it is odd that a process that is designed to take a new fresh look at players — and, even if they won’t admit it, was historically designed to put some more people in the Hall of Fame — frequently doesn’t elect new players. Bu then again, the Hall of Fame voting process seems broken in every way these days, so it should not be too surprising that, on some level, it extends to the Veterans Committee as well.
