The Vets

The Hall of Fame Veterans Committee’s voting results are out, and the lone, lucky inductee was Joe Gordon. Sorry Mr. Santo. Mr. Allen, Mr. Torre, Mr. Pinson, Mr. Oliva, and everyone else on the list.

The voting was divided up into post-1942 and pre-1943 voter’s pools, which makes some degree of sense. Among the former I would have gone with Dick Allen, Ron Santo, and Joe Torre (even though this is technically about Torre-as-player, it is my understanding that the rules allow for consideration of his managerial career, and between the two of those he has certainly earned it). Neyer’s reasoning on these guys can be found here.

I’m way less confident in the pre-1943 choices. I will note that if I were going to do a Keltner list for Carl Mays, I wouldn’t be sure whether the questions about contributions to baseball history and stuff would be pluses or a minuses in his column. On the one hand, he certainly led to changes in the way the game is played in that clean white balls and strict enforcement of anti-scuffing rules are the order of the day. On the other hand, they’re only the order of the day because he threw the pitch that killed Ray Chapman which, no matter how interesting it is, probably isn’t the sort of thing you cite in the “pro” column of your Hall of Fame CV. Mays has been dead for almost 40 years, though, so I’m not sure he cares.

Anyway, congratulations to Joe Gordon, who had to wait 30 years after he died to get in himself. A fact which shouldn’t make Ron Santo feel all that good this afternoon.