Jaffe: Pre-Integration vote again shows flaws in HOF process
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated on December 7, 2015:
For the second year in a row, a Hall of Fame era-based committeehas pitched a shutout. But that’s not the biggest problem with the Pre-Integration Committee, whose 10 candidates failed to garner the necessary 75% of the vote from its 16-member panel, which voted on Sunday. Once again, it’s abundantly clear that it’s yet again time to overhaul the process by which candidates outside the purview of the BBWAA—which only votes on recently retired players—are chosen.
The results of the vote were announced at the winter meetings in Nashville on Monday morning and concerned 10 candidates, all of whose primary contributions to the game came before 1946 and all of whom are now deceased—all but one of them died before ’92. Of that group, pioneer Doc Adams—whose credentials include the creation of the shortstop position, the standardization of the 90-foot distance between bases and the advocacy for the fly rule (balls caught on one bounce could no longer produce outs)—came closest with 10 votes, two short of election. Bill Dahlen, a standout turn-of-the-century shortstop, and Harry Stovey, a 19th-century slugger who set single-season and all-time home run records, each received eight votes. The totals for the other candidates were not released; instead, the Hall announced that pitchers Wes Ferrell and Bucky Walters, first baseman Frank McCormick, shortstop Marty Marion, owners Sam Breadon and Chis von der Ahe, and executive August “Garry” Herrmann “received three or fewer votes each.”
Read the full article here: http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/12/07/hall-of-fame-veterans-committee-pre-integration-era-vote
Originally published: December 11, 2015. Last Updated: December 11, 2015.