A little bonus baseball content as we head into the long, dark off-season.
Nine former big league players and one executive comprise the 10-name Modern Baseball Era ballot to be reviewed and voted upon Dec. 10 at the Baseball Winter Meetings.
Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Marvin Miller, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons, Luis Tiant and Alan Trammell are the candidates the Modern Baseball Era Committee will consider for Hall of Fame election for the Class of 2018. All candidates are former players except for Miller, who was the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966-82. All candidates except for Miller are living.
Any candidate who receives votes on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the 16-member Modern Baseball Era Committee will earn election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and will be inducted in Cooperstown on July 29, 2018, along with any electees who emerge from the 2018 Baseball Writers’ Association of America election, to be announced on Jan. 24, 2018.
The Modern Baseball Era is one of four Era Committees, each of which provide an avenue for Hall of Fame consideration to managers, umpires and executives, as well as players retired for more than 15 seasons.
There’s a brief bio of each candidate there, but I suggest you read Jay Jaffe for a more thorough view. I’m here for Ted Simmons, Alan Trammell, and of course Marvin Miller whose exclusion is an ongoing travesty. I fear that what we’re going to get is Jack Morris and maybe Dale Murphy, but there’s no point in worrying about that now. A better thing to ponder is why these candidates and not some alternative choices, but again, that’s the way these things go. Who would you vote for?
I’m a little torn here. I was a fan of both Trammell and Whitaker during their playing days. D/FW is an AL market and for some reason, I recall seeing the Tigers on TV a lot. Likewise, as a middle infielder wannabe and a fan of underdogs in general, there was a lot to like about the duo.
But Trammell doesn’t quite fit my highly subjective standard of making other players fearful during their prime. He was great, but probably the bare threshold of great. Re-reading the link making his argument for HOF, I think I’d have a hard time voting for him if I were able to.
I’m sure with you on Marvin Miller; people ought to know about him and baseball must remember him. He had to fight the owners and the players too, organizing the union at a time when the baseball card companies paid the players in Greenstamps. His book “A Whole Different Ball Game” is hilarious. In it Faye Vincent refers to the clubowners as “the twenty-six idiots.”
i would vote for virtually all of them.
in fact, i am surprised several of them are not in already.
is that why this committee exists? these guys hardly seem old enough to have been bypassed in the primary pipeline already.
can you say more about when this committee arose and why?
Joel:
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-fame/eras-committees
The Eras Committees, formerly known as the Veterans Committee, consider retired Major League Baseball players no longer eligible for election by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), along with managers, umpires and executives, whose greatest contributions to the game were realized in one of three eras. Committees meet at the MLB Winter Meetings.
The Eras Committee has been a part of the Hall of Fame voting process since the first class of electees in 1936, with the first Eras Committee electees coming in 1937. In all its forms, the Eras Committee has elected 165 individuals (96 major leaguers, 28 executives, 22 managers, 10 umpires and nine Negro Leaguers) to the Hall of Fame.
Four separate electorates considered by era will create a single composite ballot of managers, umpires, executives and long-retired players on rotating basis, with the Today’s Game Committee candidates to be considered at the 2016 Winter Meetings for induction in 2017 and again at the 2018 Winter Meetings for induction in 2019; the Modern Baseball Committee candidates to be considered at the 2017 Winter Meetings for induction in 2018 and again at the 2019 Winter Meetings for induction in 2020; and the Golden Days and Early Baseball committees candidates to be considered at the 2020 Winter Meetings for induction in 2021. The cycle then repeats with the Today’s Game and Modern Baseball committees each meeting twice every five years, the Golden Days Committee meeting once every five years and the Early Baseball Committee meeting once every 10 years.
All of the players to be considered have previously been on the BBWAA ballots, but were not elected. These committees are there to reconsider those who may have been unfairly overlooked.