December 11, 2022 By: Mark Knudson

Baseball Veterans Committee Hall of Fame voting just as flawed as Writers

Every January, when the results of the latest balloting for Baseball’s Hall of Fame get announced, there are cheers and jeers all around. Cheers for the lucky few who make it, and jeers for the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America because of who they left out.

What gets less attention is the results from the various “veterans committees” – the Contemporary Era Players, Contemporary Era Managers/Execs and Classic Era – each of whom is tasked with examining the cases for those who did not get the needed 75% support from the writers during their 10-year stint on the initial ballot, but who may still be worthy candidates. Some of those selected by these committees include all-timers like Sparky Anderson, Walter Alston, Jim Bunning, Larry Doby, Lefty Gomez, Gil Hodges and more.

And Harold Baines, too.

The latest to be voted in by a veterans committee – this one the 16-member Contemporary Players group – was announced a week ago, and to everyone’s delight, former Toronto Blue Jays slugger Fred “The Crime Dog” McGriff finally got his due and will be enshrined in Cooperstown. No one can quite figure out why McGriff was never chosen by the writers, but at least now he’s in.

Consider it a mistake corrected.

McGriff was the only player among the eight standouts who were on this year’s ballot to get the necessary 75% support. In fact, he got all 16 votes. None one of the other candidates came especially close.

And that’s a mistake that needs correcting.

We’ll probably never be finished arguing the cases of Barry Bonds – the games all-time leading home run hitter, and Roger Clemens, the guy with the most Cy Young Awards in baseball history. That argument is for another time.

Just know what’s keeping them out has nothing to do with what they accomplished on the field. Same goes for Curt Schilling, who continues to be the only guy to ever tweet his way out of the Hall of Fame.

What’s actually more perplexing than those exclusions is that this committee – made up of nine former executives and media members along with seven Hall of Fame players: Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones, Ryne Sandberg and Frank Thomas… and Hall members Jack Morris, Lee Smith and Alan Trammell who were themselves selected by the veterans committees – is that this group couldn’t come to a meeting of the minds on a player like Dale Murphy, the former two-time MVP who many consider the best player of the 1980’s. That’s when Trammell, Morris, Smith and Sandberg were at the peak of their careers, too. How in the heck does Murphy get left out?

Again.

Noted baseball writer Jayson Stark tells us that the best statistical metric available to compare the careers of great players is OPS+ (a combination of several park adjusted metrics.) It’s not just that his two MVP’s, his seven All-Star selections, seven Gold Gloves, 398 homers and 48.9 Wins Above Replacement numbers aren’t enough, but Murphy’s 121 OPS+ is markedly better than Sandberg’s 114 or Trammell’s 110.

A few of the all-time greats who have an OPS+ less than Murphy’s: Pete Rose, Carlton Fisk, Barry Larkin, Gary Carter, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter, Lou Brock and Cal Ripken Jr.

And remember, Baines 38.8 WAR, 384 homers and identical 121 OPS+ earned him enshrinement from the veterans committee.

Can anyone explain what’s going on here?

We spend time bashing the writers when they don’t get it right. What about these veteran committee voters? How come Murphy – the kind of model citizen that the baseball Hall seems to want – only got six of the 12 votes he needed to finally get his due?

What gives, folks? How and why are you shunning one of the stars of your own era? One of your own?

The members of this committee have some explaining to do.