No One Gets Enough Hall of Fame Votes From Veterans

Gil Hodges and Ron Santo each fell eight votes short of Hall of Fame election Wednesday in a vote by baseball’s Veterans Committee, which did not add to this summer’s class of Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg.

Hodges, the longtime Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodger, and Santo, who played all but one of his 15 major league seasons with the Chicago Cubs, were named on 52 of 80 ballots (65%), eight short of the required 75%.

Tony Oliva (45 votes), Jim Kaat (43), Joe Torre (36) and Maury Wills (26) also were not elected.

Tom Seaver, a Hall of Famer and Veterans Committee board member, said he voted for Hodges, but defended the refashioned committee’s adherence to Hall of Fame standards.

“It’s very difficult to get into the Hall of Fame,” he said, “and this should be a difficult process.”

In 2003, when the committee last voted and also elected no one, Hodges was named on 50 ballots when 61 were needed for election. Asked to assess the gains by Hodges and Santo and whether they could eventually be elected, Seaver said, “I am of the opinion it’s going to be awfully hard. And maybe that’s the way it should be.”

The next vote is in 2007, when the committee also will vote on managers, executives and umpires. Hodges, who came closest in the last two elections, probably will be on the ballot again.

“You check his record,” former Dodger manager Tom Lasorda said. “You check his statistics. And check Tony Perez’s statistics. Check the numbers. Perez played five more years in the big leagues than Gil did. Gil definitely belongs in that Hall of Fame and I can’t understand why he’s not in there. Just look at his numbers.”

Perez, who was inducted in 2000, had 379 home runs, 1,652 RBIs and a .279 batting average in 23 seasons. Hodges, in 18 seasons, had 370 home runs, 1,274 RBIs and batted .273. Santo had 342 home runs, 1,331 RBIs and batted .277 in 15 seasons.

The Veterans Committee is made up of 83 members: 60 living Hall of Famers, 14 from the broadcasters’ wing, eight from the writers’ wing and one from the former Veterans Committee. Three abstained from the 2005 vote.

-- Tim Brown

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Rick Mahler, who won nearly 100 games during a 13-year career spent mostly with the Atlanta Braves, has died of a heart attack. He was 51.

Mahler died at home in Jupiter, Fla., while preparing for his second season as a minor league pitching coach for the New York Mets, the team said. He was set to rejoin the Mets’ Class-A team in Port St. Lucie.

New York pitcher Tom Glavine telephoned the Braves to inform them of his former teammate’s death shortly before Atlanta played Georgia Tech in its first exhibition game of the spring.

“He was a great guy, a great teammate,” Glavine said. “I talked to him a lot about pitching when I first came up. He was a big help, especially for a young guy who was struggling.”

Mahler pitched in the majors from 1979 to ‘91, going 96-111 with a 3.99 ERA. His best season came in 1985, when he went 17-15 with a 3.48 ERA for the Braves. The next season, he led the majors with 18 losses.

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Jackie Robinson was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, more than half a century after breaking baseball’s color barrier.

President Bush gave Congress’ highest honor to Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.