The Hall's 2011 Veterans Committee Expansion Era ballot -- part 2, the manager and executive candidates

On to the rest of the 2011 Veterans Committee Expansion Era ballot candidates, one manager and three executives, bringing the total field to twelve.


9. Billy Martin, manager (managing career | playing career | reviewed on 2007 VC, 2008 VC, and 2010 VC ballots)

Previous Hall consideration
BBWAA voting: as a player candidate, 1 ballot, finishing with 0.3%.
VC voting: 2003 27.8%, 2007 14.8%, 2008 ≤12.5%, 2010 ≤12.5%.

Managerial career
Seasons: 16 (15 full time/majority, 1 partial) -- Minnesota Twins 1969, Detroit Tigers 1971-73, Texas Rangers 1973-75, *New York Yankees 1975-78, '79, '83, '85, '88, Oakland Athletics 1980-82.
Career W-L record: 1253-1013 (.553).
Best season: 1977 Yankees, 100-62 (.617), first place by +2.5 games, AL East champion, AL pennant, World Series championship.
Worst season: 1982 Athletics, 68-94 (.420), 5th place (of 7) by -25 games.
Finishes: first place five (and one half) times (1969, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981), second place four (and one half) times, third place three times, 4th - once, 5th - once.
Postseason appearances: five (1969, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1981), and managed the 1978 Yankees about 60% into the season.
Postseason W-L record: 15-19 (.441).
Postseason series record: 4-4.
Championships: one, 1977 New York Yankees. Managed the 1978 Yankees for more than the first half of the season but was not with the team when they hoisted the trophy.

Great players managed
Hall Of Famers: Rod Carew, Goose Gossage, Rickey Henderson, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Ferguson Jenkins, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew, Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry, Dave Winfield.
Award winners: 1969 AL MVP Killebrew, 1974 AL MVP Jeff Burroughs, 1974 AL ROY Mike Hargrove, 1976 AL MVP Thurman Munson, 1977 AL CYA Sparky Lyle, 1978 AL CYA Ron Guidry, 1985 AL MVP Don Mattingly.

Honors: The Yankees have retired Martin's #1 jersey.

Baseball bonus points: Martin was a player for 11 seasons (1950-53, '55-61) for the New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Braves, and Minnesota Twins. A member of four Yankees championship teams, MVP of the 1953 World Series. One All-Star selection.

Martin's hard-nosed, confrontational, fiery style in the dugout kicked enough player butt to get teams to win (and win awards -- that's seven listed up there, quite a lot), but only in the short term. He quickly burned out everyone with his no-holds-barred intensity, and wore out his welcomes. Martin's single longest tenure was with the 1975-78 Yankees -- a partial season, two full seasons (with two World Series appearances and one championship), then another partial season. Granted, working for George Steinbrenner can't have been easy. Martin brought no endurance with him; he was purely a short-term fixer, and even that stopped working after he left the Athletics.

Martin managed five different teams and brought four of them to the postseason, but only the Yankees more than once. While an interesting character, and not always for good reasons, his baseball career does not merit the Hall.

That Martin keeps getting back into consideration despite discouraging, even poor, voting returns indicates that he has one or two implacable advocates involved in the nomination process, and further underscores that the Hall really should implement some temporary relegation mechanism into the Veterans Committee procedures. Martin is just clogging the pipes, and needs to be set aside for one or two cycles of eligibility before he comes up again. Of course, it'd help if the Hall would stabilize the VC's methodology instead of changing it every few years, but clearly it hasn't yet settled on an approach with which it is happy. Let's hope that "Hall satisfied with VC" is not congruent with "Martin got elected!" because otherwise we'll keep dancing this annoying waltz until they call the minter to engrave one with Billy on it, and that, I am convinced, is not the best outcome.

Chipmaker's vote: No.


10. Pat Gillick, executive (Wiki bio | career)

Previous Hall consideration -- none. Complete rookie.

Baseball career
Assistant farm director/scout/scouting director, Houston Colt .45's/Astros, 1963-74.
Scouting director, New York Yankees, 1975-76.
General Manager, Toronto Blue Jays, 1977-94.
General Manager, Baltimore Orioles, 1995-98.
General Manager, Seattle Mariners, 2000-03.
General Manager, Philadelphia Phillies, 2006-08.

Accomplishments
Championships: 1992-93 Blue Jays, 2008 Phillies.
Other postseason appearances: 1985, '89, '91 Blue Jays; 1996-97 Orioles; 2000-01 Mariners; 2007 Phillies.
Other: the 2001 Mariners won a record-tying 116 games. Signed Carlos Delgado and Felix Hernandez as undrafted free agents. Plenty of quality draft picks and trades, including the landmark McGriff/Fernandez-for-Carter/Alomar deal that changed two franchises overnight.

Gillick has been around forever (he's now retired) and, as can be seen from the results of his team seasons, tends to know what he's doing when building rosters and teams. His tenure in Toronto is the weightiest part of his resume, and he built it from a typical expansion also-ran mess into a contender, and then into a champion. These things take a while, but Gillick stayed his course and reaped the rewards with back-to-back titles.

Gillick's record of success speaks loudly and puts him in rarified company. The Hall has rarely inducted an off-field candidate so soon after his career, and while Gillick is not young, if he does get in he'll actually have time to enjoy the status and the honor. I think he has done more than enough to warrant the bronze plaque. He stands well against other general managers across history.

Chipmaker's vote: Yes!


11. Marvin Miller, executive (Wiki bio | reviewed on 2007 VC, 2008 VC, and 2010 VC ballots)

Previous Hall consideration
VC voting: 2003 44.3%, 2007 63.0%, 2008 25.0%, 2010 58.3%.

Claims to fame: executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966 to 1983. Successfully negotiated increasingly more beneficial Collective Bargaining Agreements with MLB. Planned for and accomplished overturn of the reserve clause, granting the players free agency rights.

I have written much in support of Miller's candidacy -- click those previous ballot reviews above and scroll down -- and my position is unchanged. Marvin Miller is the individual most worthy of the honor the Hall confers who is not yet included. Miller organized the players into speaking in unity, got them to think and act like a collective, and one made of difficult-to-replace talent deserving of higher compensation, negotiated for arbitration rights, and leveraged that into winning the landmark Seitz decision that brought about free agency. Miller improved the working conditions of his constituent employers and brought baseball's labor standards into the 20th century.

Marvin Miller effected profound and lasting change to baseball, and made baseball better -- and that is exactly the type of contribution, of impact, the Hall is best suited to recognize and must recognize.

To the hopes of those of us who support Miller's candidacy, the committee before which he will stand has a promising composition. Unlike previous editions of the VC, which were heavily weighted with management-side voters who would consider Miller a respected adversary in the best of times, this year's committee membership is filled with players, those who most directly benefited from Miller's efforts. Election to the Hall will require at least 12 of 16 votes. Seven of the electors are former players, and the one field manager, Herzog, is a former player who also enjoys some fruit from Miller's tenure at the players' union. Another four electors are writers, whom, we can but hope, have a healthy perspective on Miller's legacy and see clear to supporting him. The last four electors are team executives and owners, and it would not surprise me if to a man they do not support Miller. So it's still a long and difficult climb for Miller's candidacy, but at least there's a sporting chance this year, with an electorate that is not automatically stacked against him.

Chipmaker's vote: Yes! ...wait, to clarify, make that YES!


12. George Steinbrenner, executive (Wiki bio | Bullpen bio)

Previous Hall consideration -- none. Complete rookie.

Claims to fame: principal owner of the New York Yankees, from purchase in 1973 through his death in 2010. Kept an active hand involved with team operations for most of that time. One of the first owners to engage free agents, signing Catfish Hunter in 1974 and Reggie Jackson in 1976. Oversaw Yankees teams to 19 postseason appearances, eleven American League pennants, and seven World Series championships (1977, '78, '96, '98, '99, 2000, '09).

George Steinbrenner was large -- somewhat physically, but mostly in terms of personality and behavior. He was the star of the show, wherever he was, and he wanted everyone to know it. He was loud, he was critical (sometimes harshly), and he answered to practically no one. The commissioner's office suspended him twice, and both times he came back ready for more. He demanded excellence and victory, and got plenty of both.

He wasn't really good at understanding baseball, however. Trades and signings were made under his direction that didn't help the team, leading to the long doldrums of the 1980s and early '90s. When Steinbrenner was reinstated after his second suspension, he tended to stay out of the way of the baseball people, and they built him not merely a winner, but a dynasty, an exceedingly rare thing in modern baseball. Steinbrenner turned his eye to making the Yankees into even more of a cash machine than it had been, founding his own regional sports network and brokering a deal for a new Yankee Stadium. As a result, the Yankees have income and wealth like no other team in baseball and few others in professional sports.

And Steinbrenner was never afraid to spend it generously. He never liked handing out the highest single contract, but had no issues with having the largest total payroll, and often did have it. More than anyone else, The Boss pushed baseball revenue and player salaries ever higher, on a team basis. As noted, he was large.

But does the Steinbrenner package merit the glory of the Hall? He's tough to assess. As an owner, he's a better candidate than most of the other owners already inducted. Most fans either love him -- these are usually Yankees fans -- or hate him (a group which also includes Yankees fans), so response to Steinbrenner is quite bipolar. He did a lot, and made even more noise, but he always had a clear goal to his erratic tactics -- win. And not nearly always, but often, it worked. It's hard to argue with the results -- seven Commissioner's Trophies, a new ballpark, money by the boatload. Steinbrenner delivered. Granted he mostly delivered things into his own pocket.

I don't think there is a great need for the Hall to honor owners anyway, but it is an established category for candidates and honorees, and Steinbrenner stands tall among them, if not actually pushing his way to the front.

I have no idea how the VC will vote on his candidacy, but he cut such a huge figure for so long, and captured titles, that I suspect he will get in eventually, even if he doesn't this time. That his recent death might garner him some bonus sympathy value may be enough to do it.

I'm not all that comfortable supporting Steinbrenner's candidacy, but I'd feel less comfortable, even if more secure, were I to deny it. So, with bewilderment and trepidation -- common afflictions when confronted with Steinbrenner -- I support The Boss for the Hall of Fame. The Red Sox fan inside me isn't cheering, but he's not mad about this, either; just sort of nodding grudging assent. Yeah, okay.

Chipmaker's vote: Yes! I think. Feels more right than a No would.


Non-player candidates I support for the Hall: Gillick, Miller, Steinbrenner.

Combined with Simmons, that's four of 12 candidates I support. Let's see what the real Veterans Committee does with this new Expansion Era ballot.