THIS IS JULY 27TH ARTICLE RE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME VET COMMITTEE

scandal
From wire reports
Notes
Baseball Hall of Fame
The Baseball Hall of Fame's
reconstructed Veterans Committee
failed to elect a player
for induction in its first two
ballots, but it has given several
eligible candidates more support
than they had received
from the writers in 15 years
on the ballot.
The "new" Veterans Committee
consists of every living
Hall of Famer (61 members),
one holdover from the old
committee and 24 writers/
broadcasters honored in their
respective wings of the museum.
They'll receive a final ballot
from 25 to 30 players,
reached through a screening
process that involves three
separate overview committees.
(Anyone who played 10
or more years in the majors is
on the original list.) The group
votes on players every other
year, on managers/umpires/
executives every four years.
The old Veterans Committee,
which operated between
1953 and 2001, fluctuated in
membership from 12 to 21
and held closed-door meetings
in which the vote totals
were not revealed. The current
system is more like the
writers' ballot — 75% is needed
for election and all results
are made public.
In the last election in 2005,
Brooklyn's Gil Hodges and
Chicago's Ron Santo each received
65% of the vote, more
support than either had garnered
on the writers' ballot.
(Hodges' best was 63%, Santo's
43%.) Minnesota's Tony
Oliva (56% in 2005) and Jim
Kaat (54%) also did better.
Hall of Famer Billy Williams
says he believes the Veterans
Committee will elect some
player this year.
By Mike Dodd
No inductees
from veterans
Buck Weaver was tainted by the
Black Sox scandal though he wasn't
accused of taking money. Johnny
Kling got a bad rap as baseball's
first contract holdout. Lefty
O'Doul's batting career was so brief
it created a popular notion he
wasn't eligible for the Hall of Fame.
All have been dead for more than
35 years, but work continues to rebuild
their legacies, thanks to loyal
fans practicing a lobby of love.
Supporters of the three are
among several groups whose
dream is to journey to Cooperstown
the final weekend in July to
see their player inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame. The campaigns
are, for the most part, grassroots
efforts and geared toward
players who would appear on the
ballot for the Veterans Committee,
which votes every two years, next
in January.
Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman
Gil Hodges and Chicago Cubs third
baseman Ron Santo received 65% of
the vote in 2005, each missing the
75% needed for election by eight
votes, and are the subjects of efforts
that are gearing up again.
The more obscure missions face
daunting tasks, and some are
designed more to repair a player's
reputation than elect him to the
Hall.
One of `eight'
Cooperstown is a secondary objective
for the Weaver initiative,
which is focusing on the former
White Sox third baseman's reinstatement.
He was one of the "Eight
Men Out" in the 1919 Black Sox
scandal, in which Shoeless Joe
Jackson and teammates were banished
from baseball for fixing to
throw the World Series. Weaver
wasn't banned for accepting money
or tanking the Series but for failing
to alert authorities.
David Fletcher, a Champaign, Ill.,
physician and life-long White Sox
fan, says he started the latest movement
about three years ago after
having a "supernatural experience"
at the site of home plate for old
Comiskey Park. (The team commemorates
the spot in what is now
one of the U.S. Cellular Field parking
lots.)
Fletcher, who had been married
at home plate five years earlier, says
he heard a voice telling him to contact
Weaver's family and "clear my
name."
When he reached the player's
living relatives after the Ray Kinsella
moment, he says, "They thought
I was a nut case. They said, `It can't
be done. Other people have tried.' "
Not like this. In addition to setting
up a website (www.clear
buck.com), Fletcher hired a public
relations consultant, staged a protest
at the unveiling of former team
owner Charles Comiskey's statue,
rented a booth at the White Sox's
winter convention and made presentations
across the country.
"I'm trying to clear a dead baseball
player's name and restore justice,"
Fletcher says, adding he has
spent well into six figures in the endeavor.
"The guy didn't take any
money, and he didn't embarrass
baseball the rest of his life."
Still in the running
Kling and O'Doul are on the list of
200 old-timers still in the running
for election to the Hall next year.
The list will be pared to 25 for the
final ballot this summer; both
failed to make to cut in 2005.
Kling was the catcher on the Chicago
Cubs' pennant-winning teams
of 1906-08 but sat out the 1909
season. When he sought to return
in 1910, the National Baseball Commission
(the predecessor to the
commissioner's office) ruled Kling
had violated his contract and fined
him $700.
"He was cited as the original
holdout. . . . He got hit
over the head with that
forever," says Gil Bogen,
author of Johnny Kling, A
Baseball Biography,
which argues that the
catcher had received
permission for a leave of
absence to tend to his
billiard parlor business in
Kansas City. "If it hadn't
been for the bad PR, I believe
he'd be in the Hall
of Fame."
Bogen and Kling's
grandson, John, have
petitioned Commissioner
Bud Selig to have the
National Commission's
ruling overturned. "I'd
like to see that part of his
record set straight," Kling says. "After
that, there shouldn't be any issues
concerning him."
O'Doul, who died in 1969, was
honored at a dinner by the United
Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco
(UICC) last month. The San Francisco
native spent his first four
years in the big leagues as a littleused,
sore-armed pitcher. After
four more years in the minors, he
returned as an outfielder at 31 and
played seven years before retiring
after the 1934 season
with a .349 lifetime batting
average, the fourth
highest all time. He
gained wide popularity
in Japan during barnstorming
tours and is a
member of the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame.
Daniel Woodhead, a
retired banker, learned
of O'Doul's exploits at
the San Francisco restaurant
bearing the player's
name and started
garnering letters of support
for his Hall candidacy
in the early 1990s.
Woodhead believes a
misunderstanding about
O'Doul's eligibility has
hampered his cause, though the
lefty slugger was on the baseball
writers' ballot, last appearing in
1962.
John Ring, a fan and member of
the UICC board, resurrected the
movement this year and, with
Woodhead, organized an information
campaign that is sending written
material and a DVD to more
than 260 sportswriters, editors and
baseball notables. "The fact that he
passed so long ago, his story may
have faded," Ring says.
O'Neil stands in
The quests for Cooperstown took
a particularly offbeat turn last week
when Buck O'Neil, 94, stepped into
the batter's box in the Northern
League All-Star game. The Kansas
City T-Bones of the independent
league signed O'Neil to a one-day
contract to drum up support. (He
walked twice.) The team also has a
petition on its website.
Others who have received
organized support include Dummy
Hoy, Dom DiMaggio, Bucky Walters
and Roger Maris.
The Hodges' candidacy has several
Dodgers fans working in its behalf.
"Everybody works a little independently,"
says Marty Adler,
president of the Brooklyn Dodgers
Hall of Fame.
Brooklyn native Joe D'Agostin, a
Norwalk, Conn., accountant, took
up the cause in 1997 and has three
websites/groups dedicated to it. Up
until last year, he attended induction
weekend in Cooperstown every
summer, lobbying and putting
fliers for the slugger on auto windshields
around town. In 2001, he
created and sold Hodges T-shirts,
donating the proceeds to charity.
"My wife says if he gets elected,
I won't have anything to do,"
D'Agostin says.
Santo, now a popular Cubs
broadcaster, generates similar passion
from Chicago fans. Scott Lewis,
28, of Palatine, Ill., started a website
(www.santoforhall.com) to collect
petitions for the third baseman's
election. He says he attended Ryne
Sandberg's induction into Cooperstown
last year and "it made me
angry for Santo. I want to do what I
can to help Ronnie get there."
Santo, like most living candidates,
appreciates fans' support but
doesn't have any contact with his
Hall activists. "I don't want to be
part of that campaigning," he says.
"What they do as a campaign, they
do on their own."
His former teammate Billy Williams,
a Hall of Famer and Veterans
Committee voter, says he gets
about three or four packages from
fans lobbying for a player each election.
Some may refresh his memory
of a player before his time, but
he doesn't think the material influences
the outcome.
"We know the credentials," Williams
says. "We played against
those guys."