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The majority of living Hall of Famers were contemporaries of Pete Rose.
There will be 83 potential voters in this year's Veterans Committee election. Provided that none of them die, there will be at least 86 in 2007 (with the additions of Boggs, Gammons and Sandberg), probably more. The same holds true for 2009, when Rose potentially be named to his first (VC) ballot.
Of the 83 current voters, one (John McHale) will see his term expire (in 2007) before Rose would become eligible for the VC. As all the others (Hall of Famers, Spink and Frick Award winners) become serve "life" terms on the committee, we can accurately estimate the total number of VC voters in 2009. The 60 present Hall of Fame members are joined now by Boggs and Sandberg. In the 2006-2008 elections, it is likely that 4-5 additional members will be elected (Ripken, Gwynn, McGwire, Rice/Sutter, Sutter/Gossage?) That would give us 67 members of the Hall when 2009 rolls around. There are presently 8 Spink and 14 Frick Award winners. Add Gammons and 3 more writers (since they are in the habit of honoring one per year) plus 4 more broadcasters (2005-2008 recipients) and we're talking about a body of voters that includes around 96 voters assuming no one dies in the meantime.
Here's a breakdown of how present Hall of Famers' careers overlapped the career of Pete Rose.
7 were teammates.
25 played a fair-to-great amount of time in the same league, against Rose.
17 more were contemporary players who played in the American League (though some played against Rose in the World Series and in the All-Star Game.)
That's 49 players who were competiting with or against Rose for a World Championship during his career.
Then you've got 1 guy who managed Rose (Anderson), 3 who managed against him regularly (Berra, Schoendienst, Lasorda) and 2 more who managed in the same era, but in the other league (Lopez, Weaver). That's 6 managers who were "contemporaries" of the perennial all-star.
Add to that Lee MacPhail, a long-time team and league official who would have seen Rose play throughout his career and you've got 56 out of 62 living Hall of Famers with a "contemporary" link to Rose.
The ones who's careers don't criss-cross Rose's are Bobby Doerr, Bob Feller, Monte Irvin, George Kell, Ralph Kiner and Phil Rizzuto.
Not coincidentally, these six are among the oldest living members of the Hall of Fame and, thus, are most likely to die before the 2009 election arrives (four years from now.) These men will range, in age, from 86 to 90 if some/any of them are still kickin' at that time. Furthermore, there isn't any guarantee that a living player at those ages will be healthy enough, or mentally competent enough to fill out and return a ballot in the mail.
I'm only suggesting that the "old school with long memories" types of voters are dying out rather quickly and the vast majority of the voters are going to be people who saw Pete Rose play baseball and saw him often. I would certainly imagine that the minority of voters who are not Hall of Famers (the writers and broadcasters) will have a similar age-distribution affecting the process.
2009 doesn't look that bad for Rose (were he removed from the ineligible list) and time is certainly on Pete's side. 2006, on the other hand, is beginning to look extremely bleak.
There will be 83 potential voters in this year's Veterans Committee election. Provided that none of them die, there will be at least 86 in 2007 (with the additions of Boggs, Gammons and Sandberg), probably more. The same holds true for 2009, when Rose potentially be named to his first (VC) ballot.
Of the 83 current voters, one (John McHale) will see his term expire (in 2007) before Rose would become eligible for the VC. As all the others (Hall of Famers, Spink and Frick Award winners) become serve "life" terms on the committee, we can accurately estimate the total number of VC voters in 2009. The 60 present Hall of Fame members are joined now by Boggs and Sandberg. In the 2006-2008 elections, it is likely that 4-5 additional members will be elected (Ripken, Gwynn, McGwire, Rice/Sutter, Sutter/Gossage?) That would give us 67 members of the Hall when 2009 rolls around. There are presently 8 Spink and 14 Frick Award winners. Add Gammons and 3 more writers (since they are in the habit of honoring one per year) plus 4 more broadcasters (2005-2008 recipients) and we're talking about a body of voters that includes around 96 voters assuming no one dies in the meantime.
Here's a breakdown of how present Hall of Famers' careers overlapped the career of Pete Rose.
7 were teammates.
25 played a fair-to-great amount of time in the same league, against Rose.
17 more were contemporary players who played in the American League (though some played against Rose in the World Series and in the All-Star Game.)
That's 49 players who were competiting with or against Rose for a World Championship during his career.
Then you've got 1 guy who managed Rose (Anderson), 3 who managed against him regularly (Berra, Schoendienst, Lasorda) and 2 more who managed in the same era, but in the other league (Lopez, Weaver). That's 6 managers who were "contemporaries" of the perennial all-star.
Add to that Lee MacPhail, a long-time team and league official who would have seen Rose play throughout his career and you've got 56 out of 62 living Hall of Famers with a "contemporary" link to Rose.
The ones who's careers don't criss-cross Rose's are Bobby Doerr, Bob Feller, Monte Irvin, George Kell, Ralph Kiner and Phil Rizzuto.
Not coincidentally, these six are among the oldest living members of the Hall of Fame and, thus, are most likely to die before the 2009 election arrives (four years from now.) These men will range, in age, from 86 to 90 if some/any of them are still kickin' at that time. Furthermore, there isn't any guarantee that a living player at those ages will be healthy enough, or mentally competent enough to fill out and return a ballot in the mail.
I'm only suggesting that the "old school with long memories" types of voters are dying out rather quickly and the vast majority of the voters are going to be people who saw Pete Rose play baseball and saw him often. I would certainly imagine that the minority of voters who are not Hall of Famers (the writers and broadcasters) will have a similar age-distribution affecting the process.
2009 doesn't look that bad for Rose (were he removed from the ineligible list) and time is certainly on Pete's side. 2006, on the other hand, is beginning to look extremely bleak.
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