Snub Hub: Cooperstown

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Boston, Massachusetts

A disappointed Ron Santo heard the news in Chicago. And if he were listening in some other better world, so did Curt Flood.

Jim Kaat, Gil Hodges and Tony Oliva got the same news in an email, a snub that once stung the late Buck O’Neill.

The Veterans Committee elected no candidates into the Baseball Hall of Fame today. It was, if not an imperfect game, a shutout nonetheless.

The committee – comprised of living Hall of Famers, Ford C. Frick winners for broadcasting and J.G. Taylor Spink Award winners for writing – has a total of 84 voters. They are a tough, if not impenetrable cabal. The group has not given anyone the requisite 75 percent since the current process went into effect in 2003.

This was the third players’ ballot, which is voted on every other year, and the second composite ballot of executives, managers and umpires, which is voted on every four years.

The late Curt Flood changed the face of baseball, but he was denied the Hall of Fame.

Former Cubs third baseman Ron Santo received the most votes on the players ballot with 57 (69.5 percent), followed by former pitcher Jim Kaat with 52 (63.4), former Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges with 50 (61.0) and former Twins outfielder Tony Oliva with 47 (57.3). Only this quartet of players made it on half of the ballots cast. Election to the Hall of Fame required 75 percent or 62 votes this year.

From numbers point of view, any kid with a computer could make the case for Santo, Kaat, Hodges and Oliva when matched against the statistics of dozens of Hall of Fame players. Kaat logged 288 victories combined with 16 Golden Gloves. A career .304 hitter, Oliva won three batting titles and was the only player in history to take his first pair in his first two years in the big leagues. During their eras, numbers aside, Santo and Hodges were golden on the field and in the batter’s box.

But Curt Flood changed the face of baseball. His challenge to baseball’s “reserve clause” sacrificed his career and health so utility ballplayers would someday become free agents and millionaires. And he took just 14 votes in the Veteran’s election. Shameful, if not just plain foolish. Cooperstown should have a wing dedicated to Curt Flood.

Walter O’Malley may have been the most despised man in Brooklyn, but he was the pioneer who in 1958 took the Dodgers and baseball’s Manifest Destiny to the West Coast. Before O’Malley, baseball ended in St. Louis.

Two men of different colors, different worlds, different intents, and different times, changed the game of baseball forever. Neither put up steroid targeted statistics, but each took baseball to another universe.

If the purpose of the Veteran’s Committee is to correct oversight, or with the wisdom of the decades recognize achievement that in its day lacked the lens of time, how are Curt Flood and Walter O’Malley passed by yet again?

Baseball is a game of numbers, but it is the national pastime. And how we pass that time in that game today is a direct product of these two men, who should be in Cooperstown.

*   *   * 

The complete vote:

Players ballot (62 votes required for election): Ron Santo 57 votes (69.5 percent), Jim Kaat 52 (63.4), Gil Hodges 50 (61.0), Tony Oliva 47 (57.3), Maury Wills 33 (40.2), Joe Torre 26 (31.7), Don Newcombe 17 (20.7), Vada Pinson 16 (19.5), Roger Maris 15 (18.3), Lefty O’Doul 15 (18.3), Luis Tiant 15 (18.3), Curt Flood 14 (17.1), Al Oliver 14 (17.1), Mickey Vernon 14 (17.1), Minnie Minoso 12 (14.6), Cecil Travis 12 (14.6), Dick Allen 11 (13.4), Marty Marion 11 (13.4), Joe Gordon 10 (12.2), Ken Boyer 9 (11.0), Mickey Lolich 8 (9.8), Wes Ferrell 7 (8.5), Sparky Lyle 6 (7.3), Carl Mays 6 (7.3), Thurman Munson 6 (7.3), Rocky Colavito 5 (6.1), Bobby Bonds 1 (1.2).

Composite ballot (61 votes required for election): Doug Harvey 52 votes (64.2 percent), Marvin Miller 51 (63.0), Walter O’Malley 36 (44.4), Buzzie Bavasi 30 (37.0), Dick Williams 30 (37.0), Whitey Herzog 29 (35.8), Bill White 24 (29.6), Bowie Kuhn 14 (17.3), August Busch Jr. 13 (16.0), Billy Martin 12 (14.8), Charley O. Finley 10 (12.3), Gabe Paul 10 (12.3), Paul Richards 10 (12.3), Phil Wrigley 9 (11.1), Harry Dalton 8 (9.9).