The 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was released last week but the results of that voting, done by the Baseball Writers Association of America, won't be announced until early next year. While the next month will see much debate about the credentials of Mark McGwire, Goose Gossage and Jim Rice, there was nary a peep about the slate of candidates considered by the Veterans Committee in advance of today's announcement of five Hall of Famers. If there was perhaps they would have avoided the monumental error they made by electing former commissioner Bowie Kuhn but not Marvin Miller. The process used for electing veterans was changed this year from the full group of living members of the Hall to three panels, one for former players, one for managers and umpires and one for executives and pioneers. Kuhn was elected by the latter group.
Miller, who got three of 12 votes from the management panel (seven current or former management execs, two former players and three writers), wasn't thrilled by the results.
"It's demeaning, the whole thing, and I don't mean just to me. It's demeaning to the Hall and demeaning to the people in it."It's demeaning because it ignores half the story of why Kuhn matters to the game of baseball. That half is Miller's and deserves telling at baseball's most hallowed ground. Instead the panel tried to rewrite history by leaving Miller on the sidelines.
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