The 2008 Hall Of Fame Veterans Committee -- Ballot Details

Rounding up some details about this year's HOF VC elections, both the pre-1943 and post-1943 ballots.

The Pre-1943 Ballot

Ballot composition: The ten candidates were selected by a Historical Overview Committee, appointed by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). The 11 representatives of this committee, all longtime members of the BBWAA, included Dave Van Dyck, Bob Elliott, Rick Hummel, Steve Hirdt, Moss Klein, Bill Madden, Ken Nigro, Jack O'Connell, Nick Peters, Tracy Ringolsby, and Mark Whicker.

The electorate: The Hall Board has appointed 12 representatives to the VC subcommittee that will vote this ballot. This includes seven Hall Of Famers -- Bobby Doerr, Ralph Kiner, Phil Niekro, Robin Roberts, Duke Snider, Don Sutton and Dick Williams; and five baseball historians -- Furman Bisher, Roland Hemond, Steve Hirdt, Bill Madden and Claire Smith.

Chances for nepotism: Not much. Doerr was a teammate of candidate Ferrell for one season (1937, Doerr's rookie year) and candidate Stephens for four (1948-51). None of the other HOF voters on this subcommittee were teammates of, or managed, any of the candidates.

The Post-1943 Ballot

Ballot composition: Two lists were drafted to compile the ballot. The BBWAA-appointed Historical Overview Committee (same 11-seat committee as above) selected 20 names. A Hall Board-appointed, second committee (six HOFers, identified representatives unknown) drafted a second list of five candidates. Merging these two draft lists resulted in 21 initial candidates. The living HOFers then served as a Screening Committee to reduce the final ballot to ten candidates.

The culled candidates: Ken Boyer (2007 review), Bert Campaneris, Rocky Colavito (2007 review), Mike Cuellar, Steve Garvey, Ted Kluszewski, Mickey Lolich (2007 review), Roger Maris (2007 review), Lee May, Minnie Minoso (2007 review), Thurman Munson (2007 review).

Of the players I've reviewed before, I support Boyer (after Santo gets in!) and Minoso, but I'm not hardline about either of them.

Of the others -- Campaneris, Cuellar, Garvey, Kluszewski, and May -- I haven't time (or need) to review them now. Garvey dropped off the BBWAA Hall ballot after the 2007 election, and I was glad to see his candidacy window expire, because he was always knocking around in the 20-25% range and, to the point, I don't think his career was Hall-worthy. In a general sense, I think the screening process did about the best it could in coming up with the ten candidate names, and bypassing these eleven others.

Results from both ballots will be announced on December 8, 2008.