Veterans Commitee HOF Nominees Named

[RedsBaron]

The NY TImes baseball blogger has been running a series on the Veterans committee's ballot. Here's one on Gil Hodges.

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/1.../?ref=baseball

I suspect the same goes for Joe Torre in this category.

Joe Torre, as a catcher, had a better argument for induction as a player than does Hodges, and Torre will make it as a manager. Hodges's relatively young death kept him from having a chance to build a HOF worthy case for induction based upon his managerial achievements.
Hodges was a very good player and there are certainly first basemen in the HOF who were not as good as he was, but I would still vote no.

[RedsBaron]

And another arguing why three of the pitchers don't make the grade, in the opinion of the columnist:

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/1...s-in-the-hall/

He is simply and clearly wrong in asserting that Bunning deserved induction into the HOF while Tiant does not. He also failed to mention Catfish Hunter. If you want to argue that inducting Bunning and Hunter were mistakes, then you can be consistent in arguing that Tiant should not be inducted into the HOF. However, those three pitchers were contemporaries and Tiant is every much as deserving of induction as were the other two.

[RedsBaron]

Column on why Santo should be in the hall:

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/1.../?ref=baseball

I agree that Santo should be in the HOF, but I sometimes wonder if his supposed edge with the bat over Ken Boyer is overstated. While Santo's career numbers in HR and BA/OBP/SLG gives him a lead over Boyer, with Santo having 342 HR and a line of .277/.362/.464 compared to Boyer's 282 HR and line of .287/.349/.462, Santo apparently was greatly helped by a home park advantage.
Wrigley Field was both a great hitters park and Santo had the advantage of playing all of his home games in the sunshine. While he hit 216 HR with a line of .296/.383/.522 at home, his road numbers were 126 HR and .257/.342/.406.
Boyer had 148 HR with a line of .298/.357/.480 at home, with less of a road fall off: 134 HR and .277/.340/.443.

[redsmetz]

Another blog on the Veteran's vote, this time on Allie Reynolds. It lays out a considerably number of reasons why he shouldn't make it, but it also has some interesting back story as well some references to sites others may find of interest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/sp...l?ref=baseball

[vic715]

Jim Kaat would get my vote.Vada Pinson was as good or better than Santo and Boyer and he's not on the list.

[wolfboy]

Joe Torre, as a catcher, had a better argument for induction as a player than does Hodges, and Torre will make it as a manager. Hodges's relatively young death kept him from having a chance to build a HOF worthy case for induction based upon his managerial achievements.
Hodges was a very good player and there are certainly first basemen in the HOF who were not as good as he was, but I would still vote no.

Hodges was blocked at C by Roy Campanella. Hard to blame the guy there. The start of his career was stalled by his service in WWII. Also hard to blame him there. I'd vote the guy in.

[redsmetz]

Here's the column from Seamheads on this year's ballot: http://seamheads.com/2011/11/10/the-...f-fame-ballot/

[RedsBaron]

Hodges was blocked at C by Roy Campanella. Hard to blame the guy there. The start of his career was stalled by his service in WWII. Also hard to blame him there. I'd vote the guy in.

While I don't support the induction of Hodges, possible the best HOF argument for Hodges is that he may have been the best first baseman of his era, the 1950s. There were other first basemen in that decade who had better seasons, such as Ted Kluzewski, but for the decade as a whole, Hodges was clearly the best at his position (unless you put Stan Musial there).

[redsmetz]

Here's one more from the Times, this time from a Chicago writer viz Minnie Minoso. I've liked these columns because they've gone into detail on the candidates backgrounds, now long forgotten.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/us...l?ref=baseball

[George Anderson]

WGN is reporting Ron Santo made the HOF.

[redsmetz]

WGN is reporting Ron Santo made the HOF.

As is mlbtraderumors: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/1...l-of-fame.html