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Baseball

Revamped panel renews Hall hopes

NEW YORK -- Until recently, Joe Torre thought he was too active to be considered for Cooperstown.

Come today, though, the Yankees manager might be able to add another title to his resume: Hall of Famer.

"It was brought up to me the other day and I had no clue that I was even eligible, to be honest with you," he said. "Because I figured I'm still working, I'm still collecting a paycheck. All these other people that have gone in, they're done. They hadn't worked."

Instead, Torre is a top candidate in this first election since the Veterans Committee revamped its rules to let Hall of Famers do most of the voting. Ron Santo, Gil Hodges and former players union head Marvin Miller also might fare well when the results are announced at 2 p.m.

It's certainly set up well for Torre. A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday for new Hall members, and it will be held in Tampa, about a 10-minute drive from the Yankees' spring training camp.

Torre, 62, was a nine-time All-Star and an MVP as a player and a four-time World Series champion as a manager. The Hall even made a point of encouraging voters to combine all of those achievements in his candidacy.

"It's tough to say you belong because of one or the other," Torre said. "You'd like to think that everything should count.

"It certainly would be an honor because ... most of the people that are doing the evaluation are your peers."

That's because of the committee's new way of doing business.

Fans claimed the 15-member panel was full of cronyism, suggesting it met behind closed doors in Tampa to choose new Hall of Famers based on speeches, not statistics.

The criticism reached a crescendo in 2001 when it chose Bill Mazeroski, a career .260 hitter known for a great glove and his home run that won the 1960 World Series. His election was enthusiastically announced by committee chairman Joe Brown, who happened to be Pittsburgh's general manager when Maz played there.

So the Hall decided to try it a new way.

The new panel has 85 members: the 58 living Hall of Fame players (newly elected Gary Carter and Eddie Murray don't get to vote yet), 25 Hall writers and broadcasters and two former committee members whose terms had not expired.

"It certainly gives other people a voice in the process," Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said Tuesday. "I think it's probably a little fairer this way. I think it's a terrific idea."

Response was strong: The Hall got ballots from 81 voters. As always, it will take 75 percent for a candidate to be selected, in this case 61 votes.

Under the old rules, the Veterans Committee met each year. With the new system, the vets pick players every two years and managers, executives and umpires every four.

Santo, who turned 63 Tuesday, was hoping for some good news. The nine-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove third baseman had both legs amputated because of diabetes.

"I want it at this time because of what I've been through, to be honest with you, healthwise," the former Cubs star said.

Miller, 85, might get support from many of the players he helped. Free agency came into effect while he was in charge, and salaries zoomed.

Miller got Palmer's vote.

"He changed the face of the game," the pitcher said.

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