February 27, 2007
No Veterans
Once again, the Veterans Committee decided not to elect any new members to the Hall of Fame. This is how it should be. The old committee used to put friends in the hall. Now, there needs to be a real good reason to overrule the writers.
I agree it's better for the Veterans Committee to be too strict then to let a bunch of their friends in.
But Ron Santo needs to be in the HOF. 342 HRs. Five Gold Gloves. That's clearly enough to get in at the least-represented position (3B) in the Hall.
Somebody's got to be the best player not in the HoF. Better Santo's not in than Hodge, Kaat, and Oliva join him in the induction ceremony.
"Somebody's got to be the best player not in the HoF."
well, whoever is the "best player not in the hall" should be worse than EVERYONE that already is in the hall.
Boggs, Brett, Schmidt, Matthews, Brooksie - only 3B in the Hall better than Santo. When you are the 6th best 3B of all time, you should be elected.
I, like many today, don't understand how Ron Santo can be excluded from the HOF and that exclusion defended on the basis that sports writers are infalible. By any and, I believe, all measures that the new era of baseball analysts apply to the game Santo was one of the elite players and one of the very elite at his position. Defending the right of ten year memebers of the BWAA to make mistakes is not what the HOF is about; it is supposed to be about honoring the best players. Pick your favorite tool for comparing baseball players, apply it to Santo and then tell us how you would have voted. I would hazard a guess you wouldn't have a good leg to stand on by your own standards.
Let's not forget Ted Simmons. He's better than Fisk or Carter. But he never played in NY or Boston...
re; Kaat & Oliva
Well, Jim "Kit" Kaat and Tony "o" Oliva both deserve induction into the HOF.
Just because they were twins and not media darlings of the NY press means nothing.
They won the 65 pennant; a couple of division titles; Jim Kaat pitched on several other division title winners including one in Philly; Kaat won 286 games as I recall; Oliva won several batting titles; and together with Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew, they were a feared team.
All four belong in the Hall. No one wanted to play those four guys.
Also, Camilo Pascual had filthy stuff in his prime. While I don't claim he had the HOF numbers, in his prime he was faster than anyone.
--arthur j kyriazis, philly
