Your Choice for the next Golden Era Hall of Famer?

And....................they selected........wait for it............NOBODY!

What was the point?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ml ... /20091491/

I don't get it...

Only 3 votes for Tiant, who I think was the most deserving of the group.

This may not be a bad thing having nobody elected. There was probably a time when these old timer veteran committees were needed. When the HOF was first created and voters were having to choose from all of baseball history prior to that some deserving players probably were missed by the 75% vote requirement.

But anyone failing to get in over say the last 50 years were only going up against their contemporaries. But when Allen retires and never garners more than what 19% is it really an injustice he missed? In addition anyone from this golden era list who had made it would have opened up a whole new crop of deserving guys. If Allen for example got in with his 351 homers and 1,119 RBI would there then be much of an argument at all on guys like Hodges getting in?

Are most of these golden era guys now serving only the purpose of lowering the bar for election? Just asking.

I wonder what the vote breakdown was -former players versus sportswriters.

Here's the Hall of Fame's spin on the results. Of course, they can't reveal who voted for who.
http://baseballhall.org/hof/golden-era- ... es-results

Dick Allen and Oliva are only one vote away. I think Allen is reasonably HOF-worthy. At the same time, it's not a tragedy in my mind if he doesn'l make it, since his case is not overwhelming.

Tiant (strangely to me) got 3 or fewer, while Hodges collapsed from 9 votes to 3 or fewer. Kaat is still hanging in there with 10.

Oliva's 11 votes sort of mystify me. Why did he come so close?

As I understand the way the Committee is constituted, performance this year might not forecast performance next time, since they change the makeup of the Committee each time it meets. I think this was to break of the cronyism of the old days of the Veterans Committee, which led horsetrading along the lines of "You vote for my candidate this time, and I'll vote for your guy next time."

The collapse of Hodges's support may have something to do with who was on the Committee. Sutton was the only former Dodger on the list, unless I'm missing somebody.

Next year it's the Pre-Integration Committee. I thought Yankee president Jacob Ruppert--who signed Babe Ruth, built Yankee Stadium, and launched the Yankee Dynasty--was long overdue when he was elected in 2012, but I wonder if there's anybody left? Bill Dahlen who got 10 last time and Wes Ferrell (who got 3 or less) seem to be reasonable candidates. After that, we're getting into series "meh" territory. Marty Marion? Tony Mullane? Bucky Walters? They may have to shut the pre-1947 one down at some point...

Oliva had less than 2000 hits. He is basically Bill Madlock with 3 batting titles instead of 4.

If Oliva hadn't gotten injured at 32, he might have made a real HOFer, but that's a story one can tell of many, many players.

One reason to keep the steroid guys out is that PEDs may have helped some players overcome injuries that otherwise might have ended their careers before they attained HOF-level records.

When guys improve at 35 instead of going into a career tailspin--or 32, as Oliva did after his injury--you have to wonder about their credentials and their credibility.

Since nobody was elected in, it might be time to turn the attention over to Charlie Hustle.