The HOF's New VC, Part 4 (and last): Summary

In a little over a week, during the Winter Meetings, two committees, subsets of the complete Veterans Committee, will meet and vote on two ballots, one of Managers & Umpires and another of Executives. Results will be announced on December 3.

If I were eligible to vote -- and real voters are limited to no more than four votes on each ballot -- here's how I would cast mine:

M&U: Davey Johnson, Danny Murtaugh, Billy Southworth, Doug Harvey.

Executives: Ewing Kauffman, Marvin Miller, Walter O'Malley.

As this is a completely new revision of the Veterans Committee and some of its ballots, there is no way to predict what the results will be, but I'll stretch and say one candidate, Harvey, gets elected.

The one limitation I see in these ballots is that the Hall has not defined any relegation method. There's no firm way to take the extremely low-voted candidates and put them on enforced hiatus from further consideration. It doesn't have to be permanent, but there should be a method by which obvious deadwood gets pushed aside, at least for a while. This was clearly lacking in the previous incarnation of the VC, whereby the non-players ballots in 2003 and 2007 had the exact same set of candidates. Take the hint, Hall -- sometimes there are candidates who are just never going to measure up, no matter how much some small faction of nominators likes them. The lack of a relegation method is more a shortcoming than a real failing, but it still should be addressed.

And with that, let's see what happens. The Hall at least did take the initiative that the previous VC was not working, or at least was doing nothing that no committee at all would have accomplished equivalently, and so is trying something new. Good job reading the tea leaves, Hall.

I'm hoping at least one candidate, of these 20, gets elected, just because that's a better result than no one (and given my druthers, it would unquestionably be Marvin Miller). And the new VC gets a further shakedown next year with player ballots, where Santo might finally get his due. At least it'll be interesting.

Review of the 2008 writers ballot when it gets released in December. The election announcement comes on January 8, 2008.