(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Ted Simmons & Marvin Miller elected into Hall of Fame
Nederlands
 SAN DIEGO, California (USA) -
Catcher Ted Simmons and Players Union Chief Marvin Miller have been elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
On Sunday-evening (December 8), the election of the two was announced after a meeting and voting by the Modern Baseball Era Committee on the eve of the annual Baseball Winter Meetings, which this year are held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.
The two will officially be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on July 26 next year.
Joining them will be the choices of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, who annually are announced in January.
Amongst the players eligible to be elected is Derek Jeter, the former short stop of New York Yankees.
On January 21, it will be announced who will join Simmons and Miller into the Hall of Fame.
Simmons was named on 13 of the 16 ballots on Sunday and Miller was named on 12.
Other candidates were Dwight Evans, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker and Lou Whitaker.
To be elected, someone needs 75% of the votes.
Marvin Miller, who passed away in 2002 at age 95, headed the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966-1982.
He had been a candidate in the past, but also ended up with a shortage of votes.
Two years ago, during the last meeting of the Modern Baseball Era Committee, Miller got seven votes (out of twelve).
During Miller's tenure free agency, arbitration and a collective bargaining agreement were introduced and players got more rights.
Free agency was introduced in 1975.
Also player salaries increased when Miller headed the Players Association.
Ted Simmons played in 21 Major League-seasons, mostly for St. Louis Cardinals, and was regarded one of the best catchers.
Nevertheless, he was on a Hall of Fame-ballot only once.
Simmons, who now is 70 years old, fell only one vote shy two years ago.
In his long career, Simmons (who was a switch-hitter) played in 2,456 games and collected 2,472 basehits, including 248 homeruns, hitting .285 with a .348 On-Base Percentage.
He batted in 1,389 runs, was selected for eight All Star Games and won the World Series in 1982 with Milwaukee Brewers.
In recent years, other statistics started to play a bigger role in determining the value of a player, including On-Base Percentage.
Simmons played for St. Louis Cardinals (1968-1980), Milwaukee Brewers (1981-1985) and Atlanta Braves (1986-1988).
In 1975, Simmons was the second best hitter in the National League with a .332 batting average behind Bill Madlock (Chicago Cubs).
In the same season, he set a single-season record for most basehits by a catcher with 188.
Simmons caught two No-Hitters, in 1971 by Bob Gibson and in 1978 by Bob Forsch.
After he retired, Simmons was first eligible for the Hall of Fame in 1994 when pitcher Steve Carlton was the lone player to be elected.
Simmons received 3.7 percent of the votes.
A player needs five percent to remain eligible for future elections.
As Simmons received less, he was removed from the ballots, but remained eligible for the Veteran Committee.
In 2001, the Veteran Committee underwent a change.
Another reorganization followed in 2007 and in 2010 three different eras (and committees) were determined.
These timeframes were restructed in July 2016 and four new committees were established.
The Modern Baseball Era Committee considers players, executives, coaches, officials, journalists and others who were active in 1970-1987.
The other committees are the Today's Game Committee (1988-present), Golden Days Committee (1950-1969) and Early Baseball Committee (1871-1949).
The Early Baseball Committee comes together only in years ending in 0 (like next year, 2020).
The Golden Days Committee meets in years ending in 0 and 5.
The other two committees meet twice every five years, alternate their meetings and skip a meeting when the Early Baseball or Golden Days Committee has an election.
For each election, there will be ten candidates.
The next meeting of the Modern Baseball Committee will be in 2022.
(December 8)
|
