No Need to Write Off Hall of Fame Voting

The august body, the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, embracing the cream of intellectualism, a veritable think tank, is ticked off.

And why is the Baseball Writers Assn. of America ticked off? It is the fault of the Hall of Fame directors, pandering to baseball’s hierarchy, recently instituting a rule that would keep Pete Rose off the so-called eligible list.

A letter from the chairman of the baseball writers’ Los Angeles-Anaheim chapter, Mr. Dave Cunningham, explains that many within the membership would not vote for Pete Rose, but resent the impudence of the Hall of Fame directors, screening the candidates.

Writers are asked by Cunningham to submit suggestions that will be carried to Hall of Fame directors.

The first suggestion crossing an elector’s mind is to tell baseball to take its Hall of Fame and stick it in its helmet.

For 52 years, ever since the shrine at Cooperstown opened, writers have voted on the candidates. To serve as an elector, one must work as a baseball writer a minimum of 10 years.

An awful lot of those electing have worked on the job much longer, explaining, partly, their objection to Hall of Fame directors lecturing them on what is moral and what isn’t.

Pete Rose was a bettor. Betting isn’t a good idea.

But the Hall of Fame directors who won’t allow his name even to appear on the ballot serve, for the most part, ownership, whose conduct comes under scrutiny as readily as Rose’s.

These owners were nailed not long ago for collusion. Player salaries were escalating. Free agents were on the loose. Tapping the old scalp, the owners concluded that the way to stop free agents is not sign them.

Do you know what this is called, folks? It is called restraint of competition. It also is spectacularly against the law, something of which the owners were reminded when an arbitrator ordered them to pay millions to the players in penalty.

Up until free agentry came long, baseball operators never suffered twinges of conscience running a monopoly.

Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays? What was their recourse if they felt underpaid? They threatened to sit out, but never meant it.

When Koufax held out in tandem one time with Don Drysdale, they would barnstorm in Japan. They also said they were promised parts in a picture in which Drysdale would play a house detective and Koufax an Italian waiter.

Predictably, in the end, they capsized to management, as players usually did.

So morality speeches by Hall of Fame directors, fronting for ownership, have to be ruled suspect, for reason of ownership history.

And, of course, temporary derangement on the part of owners also must be considered, in view of the salaries they are now playing.

And what about the baseball commissioner? He has Pete Rose on the suspended list, but is blissfully untroubled by 26 owners found guilty of collusion.

Since the Hall of Fame belongs to baseball, a question has been raised whether the writers have any business doing the voting.

If baseball is going to control what candidates belong on the ballot, baseball should do the voting. Or baseball can turn it over to its faithful fans, who have done such a matchless job over the years selecting impartially the All-Star teams.

The fans have never bypassed a deserving player in the cause of a personal favorite. They have never stuffed ballot boxes. They have never lobbied for locals, nor have they been encouraged to vote for locals by local teams.

But what the Hall of Fame directors won’t get away with is screening the candidates on whom the baseball writers will vote. Sensitive flowers all, the writers will respond as Jimmy Durante once did.

Announced Jimmy: “I’m going to court. Then I’m going to appeals court and then the Supreme Court. And if I get no satisfaction, I’ll take the case to a notary public.”