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Ron Santo got screwed again by his peers last week. The Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame selected Joe Gordon as its only inductee this season. Gordon, an admittedly great second baseman who was the 1942 Most Valuable Player for the Cleveland Indians (in a year when Ted Williams won the triple crown), snuck in as part of the election based on players whose careers began before 1943. The smaller voting body of Hall of Famers familiar with the era produced 10 votes out of 12 for Gordon. By contrast, Santo got 39 votes from the larger body of 64 previously elected Hall of Famers from his era who were voting, but that did not meet the 75 percent (48, for the math-challenged out there) required for induction.
So let’s be honest. The Veterans Committee is fucked — as it has been for years. It never would have voted in Mazeroski, as it never would have unearthed a deserving, but long-forgotten figure like George Davis, of the 1906 “Hitless Wonders” White Sox World Series winners, whose candidacy was championed most of all by James. Unfortunately, James’s arguments haven’t worked as well for Santo. He will be in the Hall of Fame someday, when the powers that be at last come to the realization that he belongs. The only question is whether Santo will be there for the induction.
