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Hall Hierarchy Starting to Get it

© Joseph J. Checkler

Get out the party hats and balloons. But fire the clowns. The Baseball Hall of Fame announced last month that the Veterans Committee as we know it will be dissolved. According to the August 6, 2001 press release, the changes "are designed to make the process much more open and understandable while maintaining the high standards for earning election to the Hall of Fame." What it should have said was, "no more Mazeroski’s in the Hall of Fame." The Veterans Committee will retain its three members with non-expired terms, but will now consist of the 61 living inductees, and the 26 living recipients of the Ford Frick award and J.G. Taylor Spink award. The number of members goes from fifteen to ninety, but the increase in accountability is immeasurable. All of the Hall of Famers will now have to face the music in controversial situations, not just the select group of biased legends (that made up the previous Veterans Committee).

The press release explains that a group of sixty baseball writers will select 25 players and a total of 15 managers, umpires and executives. The Hall of Fame Board of Directors (a group that includes Joe Morgan, George Steinbrenner, and Bud Selig, among others) will "appoint an independent screening committee of six Hall of Fame members to identify five (possibly different) candidates for the players ballot." After this process, the numbers will be pared down to between 25 and 30. The eligible candidates must receive 75% (or 68 out of 90) of the vote to be elected. The net result is that the Veterans Committee now elects similarly to the baseball writers (in the regular vote).

A few other odds and ends: the veterans committee process will take place every two years (starting in 2003), and a decision on how to handle the eligibility of Negro League candidates will be made after the current study (sponsored by the hall itself) is completed.

Cudos to the hierarchy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the good deed they have done. They have taken all that was starting to become cheap in their process and added value to it. Thank you.