Monday, December 08, 2008

Baseball Veterans Committee elects Joe Gordon to Hall of Fame

Ron Santo, Joe Torre, and others have to wait at least another year. I don't understand as to why the veterans have to be so stingy when it comes to electing folks. I'm a Cards fan and Ron Santo belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Joe "Flash" Gordon was posthumously elected by the Veterans Committee. Gordon played for the Yankees from 1938-1946 and the Indians from 1947-1950.
Gordon, who played second base for the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians from 1938-43 and 1946-50, received 10 of a possible 12 votes from the Veterans Committee members who voted on the pre-1943 ballot. That ballot featured players who began their big league careers before 1943. Gordon received votes on 83.3 percent of ballots cast, with 75 percent necessary for election. He will be enshrined July 26 at the Induction Ceremony in Cooperstown with any players elected in the Baseball Writers' Association of America vote, results of which will be announced Jan. 12.

"We are thrilled and proud to welcome Joe Gordon to the Hall of Fame family," said Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark. "The Veterans Committee for this ballot had the challenge of considering players who retired long ago, but the Hall of Famers and historians on the Committee did their homework with diligence and effort, and we thank them."

The Veterans Committee for the pre-1943 ballot consisted of Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr, Ralph Kiner, Phil Niekro, Robin Roberts, Duke Snider, Don Sutton and Dick Williams and historians Furman Bisher, Roland Hemond, Steve Hirdt, Bill Madden and Claire Smith.[...]

The Hall of Fame also announced balloting results for its election of players on the post-1942 ballot -- for players whose big league careers ran between 1943 and 1987. A final ballot of 10 players was considered by the post-1942 Veterans Committee, which consists of the 64 living Hall of Famers.

No player reached the 75-percent threshold necessary for election to the Hall of Fame in the post-1942 balloting. With 100 percent of all 64 living Hall of Famers returning their ballot, 48 votes were necessary to meet the 75-percent standard for election. Voters could choose up to four candidates, and an average of 3.33 votes per ballot were cast.

Among the Hall of Fame candidates on the post-1942 ballot, former Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox third baseman Ron Santo led all candidates with 39 votes, totaling 60.9 percent of all ballots cast.

Results of the 2008 Post-1942 Players Ballot (48 votes needed for election): Santo (39 votes, 60.9 percent), Jim Kaat (38, 59.4 percent), Tony Oliva (33, 51.6 percent), Gil Hodges (28, 43.8 percent), Joe Torre (19, 29.7 percent), Maury Wills (15, 23.4 percent), Luis Tiant (13, 20.3 percent), Vada Pinson (12, 18.8 percent), Al Oliver (nine, 14.1 percent), Dick Allen (seven, 10.9 percent).

"When our board of directors restructured the Veterans Committee after the 2007 election, it did so with the goal of ensuring the voters -- the living Hall of Famers -- would review their peers," said Jane Forbes Clark. "The 10 post-1942 ballot finalists all spent a substantial part of their playing career in the 1960s or the 1970s, and a vast majority of the voters were either actively playing, managing or involved in baseball in those two decades.

"The process was not redesigned with the goal of necessarily electing someone, but to give everyone on the ballot a very fair chance of earning election through a ballot of their peers. The vote reinforces the selections of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and maintains the high standards set by the BBWAA. A 75-percent threshold is extremely difficult to attain, but the highly selective process helps ensure that enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame remains the greatest honor in the game."
In his career, he hit a career average of .268, hit 253 home runs, and drove in 975. Gordon was selected to 9 All-Star games (1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949), won the 1942 AL MVP award, and was a member of 5 World Champion teams, four of which were with the Yankees.

9x All-Star selection
5x World Series champion (1938, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1948)
1942 AL MVP

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