Another part of the Hall's re-constituted Veterans Committee will vote on the current Executives ballot on December 2 at the Winter Meetings, with results announced on December 3. I'm hoping that total votes will be released, but it may be a simple in/out list, which is so much less interesting, but as with the Managers & Umpires ballot, this has not yet been detailed that I can find.
The ten candidates on next month's Executives ballot. Candidates who were on the previous VC ballot (February 2007) will have very brief comments, unless I see a need to substantially reconsider my opinion from then to now. In the ever-popular alphabetic order:
1. Buzzie Bavasi
Reviewed in February.
2003 VC ballot: 43.0%
2007 VC ballot: 37.0%
Bavasi was involved in baseball for half a century, or essentially forever, made some headlines (in that long a tenure, who wouldn't?), had some winning teams and some losing teams built under his direction. As with players, longevity is a strong asset but not enough by itself to earn the bronze plaque. I find nothing here compelling.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
2. Barney Dreyfuss
Claims to fame: longtime owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates (1900-32). Briefly owner of the Louisville Colonels, an NL team that was contracted after the 1899 season, and Dreyfuss made sure all the good players, including Honus Wagner, ended up with the Pirates. Built Forbes Field in 1909, the first steel ballpark. The Pirates won two World Series (1909, 1925) and four other National League pennants (1901-03, 1927) during his tenure. Sketchily credited with conceiving the World Series.
Dreyfuss was a team owner, and while he was a good one, I don't find a lot of the bold, pioneering sort of work that the Hall looks for from the owner ranks. Owners should be working to deliver entertaining, winning baseball to the fans and thereby profit, and honoring someone simply for doing their job without obvious excellence in the execution thereof doesn't seem to be among the Hall's goals. As for the World Series, there had been exhibition postseason play a few years earlier, so making it "count" wasn't that innovative, and the Series stumbled out of the gate as the 1904 NL champion Giants refused to participate. Anyway... standard longtime baseball man but nothing that stands out.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
3. John Fetzer
Claims to fame: longtime owner of the Detroit Tigers (minority owner 1956-60, full owner 1961-83). Made his fortune in radio and television broadcasting, and helped MLB negotiate national contracts during his tenure. Put good teams on the field, peaking with the 1968 World Series champion; also took home an AL East title in 1972 and sold out just before the monster 1984 champions, so a good bit of that team was put in place under his administration.
Another generally good-guy owner, but with the emergence of the players union under Marvin Miller during this time, no owner gets off easy. As a group, they were incapable of negotiating in good faith or ceding any amount of power, leading to such confrontation losses as the 1972 and 1981 strikes and the 1975 free agency decision. It just wasn't a good era to be an owner if one wanted a cruise-control style labor market. Fetzer put a good team on the field but nothing in his baseball career stands out as particularly notable.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
4. Bob Howsam
Claims to fame: general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals (1964-66) and the Cincinnati Reds (1967-78 -- the Big Red Machine era -- and 1983-84). Also ran the minor league Denver Bears (at A and AAA level) from 1947-62. Helped co-found the Continental League in 1959, which never went anywhere but inspired (threatened) MLB to expand in the early 1960s. Put the finishing touches on the Big Red Machine, particularly getting Joe Morgan, as the Reds brought home two World Series championships (1975-76), two other NL pennants (1970, '72), and another NL West title (1973), while putting six MVPs (Bench '70 & '72, Rose '73, Morgan '75-76, Foster '77) on the field.
Howsam had good timing with Cincinnati -- he did help fine-tune the Machine, but the core was already on the farm when he got there, except for Morgan and Foster. He also bailed out just as free agency was beginning to influence roster structure and team payrolls, so it's difficult to say how well he might have adapted to the new age (his brief return to the GM chair was not notable). Ran one of the great teams of the second half of the 20th century, and had a long career doing many good things, but I cannot see any greatness or bold innovation on his résumé.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
5. Ewing Kauffman
Claims to fame: original owner of the Kansas City Royals, from the team's inception in 1969 until his death in 1993. Kauffman Stadium is named after him, an honor he resisted on his deathbed until his wife reminded him that it wasn't just a building, it was one with a baseball diamond inside. Under his administration, the Royals founded a baseball academy with hopes of fostering young talent, built Royals/Kauffman, won the AL West six times, the American League pennant twice, and took the 1985 World Series championship.
A billionaire from the pharmaceuticals business and a generous philanthropist who gave away millions to worthy causes, mainly in the Kansas City area, Kauffman was a genuinely good man. He returned baseball to KC (the Athletics moved out after 1967), he wasn't hesitant to spend to build a winner, and he was successful, culminating in the 1985 title. He gave Kansas City one unquestionable Hall Of Famer, George Brett. I typically have little love for owners, and as with others Kauffman crashes into the Marvin Miller era when the owners, as a group, fought and lost consistently. But Kauffman's pure dedication to his city and to great baseball lets him transcend his peers. (Certainly comparing the Royals' fortunes since his death makes the contrast between Good Owner and Bad Owner glaringly obvious.) He's too good for the Hall, but I'll vote for him anyway.
Chipmaker's vote: Yes.
6. Bowie Kuhn
Reviewed in February.
2003 VC ballot: 25.3%
2007 VC ballot: 17.3%
Kuhn was Commissioner for a long time, and some good and interesting things happened under his administration (expansion in 1969 and 1977, divisional realignment and additional postseason play in 1969, the designated hitter in 1973), but he's got some bigger albatrosses -- the 1981 season-splitting strike and the 1975 free agency decision (against his employers, the owners). Commissioner is not an easy job and Kuhn was not a bad person, but he didn't take initiative often enough -- the office is powerful -- and eventually he was swept aside. History hasn't been kind to him, but in many ways, it shouldn't be. His tenure didn't accomplish enough by his actions to merit the Hall.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
7. John McHale
Claims to fame: general manager of the Detroit Tigers (1957-58), Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1959-66), and Montréal Expos (1978-84). Team president of the Expos from its expansion beginnings in 1969.
Baseball bonus points: McHale was a player for the Detroit Tigers for parts of five seasons (1943-45, '47-48). The few times he played defense, he was at first base. Bench players serve a purpose, but the only thing notable about McHale's playing career was that he was a member of the 1945 World Series champion team.
McHale is yet another baseball lifer, someone who was always around in a front office somewhere. His tenure with the Braves came just after the team had peaked, and the city of Milwaukee started losing interest, such that the team finally left for Atlanta (a move which, by extension, let Bud Selig into the game's corridors of power), so McHale's efforts during this time were ultimately discouraging. He did better in Canada, building the only Expos team ever to reach the postseason, and that was good work. But the Hall is for more than just good work, and nothing about McHale says greatness.
Esoteric bonus baseball points: McHale was the last holdover from the pre-2001 incarnation of the Hall's Veterans Committee; his term on the VC didn't expire until after the February 2007 ballot cycle. I suspect his candidacy here is, in part, based upon the timing of his term finally expiring.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
8. Marvin Miller
Reviewed in February.
2003 VC ballot: 44.3%
2007 VC ballot: 63.0%
Marvin Miller was the longtime executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, colloquially known as the players union. Marvin Miller improved working conditions for his constituents, the players, from the day he took the job. Marvin Miller's crowning achievement was winning an arbitration decision to overturn the assumed perpetuity of the standard player contract reserve clause -- a decision which enacted free agency within Major League Baseball. Marvin Miller's influence and impact endures to this day. Baseball now earns billions instead of mere millions, and part of that is because Miller set the players (occasionally) free.
Marvin Miller made baseball better. He delivered the greatest positive off-field change the game has ever seen, and that change (and many other, smaller ones) continues to this day.
That is exactly the sort of impact that the Hall should seek to honor.
Marvin Miller is The Most Worthy Person Not In The Hall.
Unfortunately, Miller will stand before an electorate of twelve, which includes three writers, seven current or former executives, and only two former players. Miller's candidacy needs at least a majority of the executives (assuming he has the players and writers behind him, which is unknown), and many people who have held big seats in a team front office view him as a mortal enemy, the man who forged the strongest labor union in history (think former Wal-mart CEO David Glass will ever vote for a union man, particularly one as storied as Miller?). Placing Marvin Miller before this particular electorate is either heartlessly stupid or deliberately dismissive, a backhanded way of ensuring he never gains a plaque in the Hall -- and neither evaluation makes the Hall look good. I can easily understand how various powers-that-be want never to see Miller elected, but denying his impact on history is simply pernicious. He deserves the plaque. He earned it, which is more than can be said for some other honorees in the Executive category.
I predict that Miller's candidacy, on this December 2007 ballot, is doomed, because of the constituency of the present electorate. I don't want anyone handwaved into the Hall, but the next time the Executives ballot comes around, in late 2009, I hope the Hall sees fit to convene a more equitable electorate. Well, we'll see; maybe he gets elected next month after all, which would be a delightful surprise.
I ramble -- but Miller is that important to baseball history. No one has had a greater impact on the game or the business. I cannot support Miller's candidacy enough. So, predictably, my vote is very much in favor.
Chipmaker's vote: YES!
9. Walter O'Malley
Reviewed in February.
2003 VC ballot: 48.1%
2007 VC ballot: 44.4%
A longtime owner, and a powerful one in the smoke-filled back rooms, who led the territorial expansion of Major League Baseball across the continent. I'm not a strong supporter of O'Malley for the Hall (and like the real electors, I limit myself to no more than four votes), but I was faintly in favor of him before so I'll hold to that, but if I had to start throwing my candidates off the boat O'Malley would be the first to go.
Chipmaker's vote: Yes, without enthusiasm.
10. Gabe Paul
Reviewed in February.
2003 VC ballot: 16.5%
2007 VC ballot: 12.4%
A baseball lifer who got involved in some of the interesting developments over the decades (divisional realignment in particular), but I cannot see anything that proclaims Hall-worthiness, and his previous ballot returns agree with me.
Chipmaker's vote: No.
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Summary of Chipmaker's Yes votes: Kauffman, Miller, O'Malley.
If I could vote for only one: Miller.
Next: a brief summary and comments.
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