The Hall of Fame will gain a few members later this morning as the Veteran’s Committee will vote on inductions this morning. The official announcement will take place at 10AM.
The nominees:
Dave Concepcion
Bobby Cox
Steve Garvey
Tommy John
Tony La Russa
Billy Martin
Marvin Miller
Dave Parker
Dan Quisenberry
Ted Simmons
George Steinbrenner
Joe Torre
If I were a gambling man I’d put my money on La Russa, Cox and Torre. I’d like to say this is the year Marvin Miller finally gets his due -- he has fallen just short a number of times -- but there is always some amount of drama and uncertainty surrounding his candidacy. I feel as though people aren’t prepared to induct Steinbrenner yet, but eventually he will make it in. It all depends on how generous the committee is feeling this year. While I, personally, would vote in Quisenberry and Simmons, most of the players would appear to fall just short of what Hall voters tend to prefer and none of them seem like special cases whose popularity among voters outstrips their baseball bonafides.
No matter what happens, after the abject failure exhibited in the past couple of BBWAA elections, it’ll be nice to hear about a couple of folks given Hall of Fame honors later today.