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Red Sox Great Dwight Evans Falls Short Of 2013 Expansion Era Ballot For Hall Of Fame
By Patrick Languzzi (Cooperstown Correspondent) Follow @patricklanguzzi
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On November 4th the National Baseball Hall of Fame released the names of 12 candidates selected to the Expansion Era ballot of the Veterans Committee.
The Expansion Era is composed of players, executives and managers who made their greatest career contributions between 1973 – present.
Of the 12 selected, any candidate receiving 12 of 16 votes, (seventy-five percent) will gain election into The National Baseball Hall of Fame with a ceremonial induction scheduled for July of 2014.
Dwight Evans Cannon For An Arm
BBWAA Historical Overview Committee To Devise 2014 Expansion Era Ballot
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Follow @mlbreportsTuesday, February 19, 2013
By Patrick Languzzi (Cooperstown Correspondent): Follow @patricklanguzzi
From January 29th – 31st, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) Historical Overview Committee met in Cooperstown to screen potential candidates for the 2014 Expansion Era ballot (Veterans Committee). The 12-member ballot will be released in the fall and is scheduled to be voted on at the baseball winter meetings in December by a 16-member electorate.
The Expansion Era is comprised of players, executives and managers who made their greatest career contributions between 1973 – present. Eligible players must be retired for at least 21 years and have played at least 10 major league seasons. Managers and Umpires are eligible five years after retirement, with 10 years of service, or six months from the date of election after retirement, if they are 65 years or older.
All candidates receiving at least 12 of 16 votes (75 percent of the 16 ballots) will gain election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for a July 2014 ceremonial induction.
Under the new rules, the Veterans Committee ballots run on a three-year rotation beginning in 2010 with the Expansion Era (1973 – present), Golden Era (1947 – 1972) and Pre-Integration Era (1871 – 1946).
Here’s a look at the selected nominees from 2010. Long retired players; Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Vida Blue, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Al Oliver, Rusty Staub and Ted Simmons. Manager Billy Martin and executives George Steinbrenner, Pat Gillick and Marvin Miller.
Pat Gillick HOF Induction Speech:
The Patrick Languzzi Interview: The Man Behind The Petition About The Dwight Evans For The ‘BBHOF’ Candicacy Campaign
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Dwight Evans falls into that category with Don Mattingly, Mark Grace, Will Clark and Keith Hernandez. Guys that were the best players amongst their peers, (offensively and defensively) plus BBHOF Worthy (In some cases) – but are trounced on by the ballooned ‘Steroid era” numbers.
By John Tuberty – Special Guest Writer and Cooperstown Correspondent (Owner of The Wesbite Tubbs Baseball Blog, please view here . )
Under current Hall of Fame voting rules, the Expansion Era Committee meets once every three years to vote on retired players who are no longer eligible for election by the BBWAA, have been retired 21 or more seasons, and made their biggest contributions to the sport after 1972. In addition to the retired players, the Expansion Era ballot also includes retired managers, umpires, and executives from the post-1972 era. One player who is eligible to be included on December’s Expansion Era ballot is former Red Sox Right Fielder, Dwight Evans.
Despite owning impressive career totals such as 385 Home Runs, 2,446 Hits, and 8 Gold Glove Awards, Evans struggled to draw support in BBWAA Hall of Fame voting and fell off the ballot after failing to draw the necessary five percent needed to stay on the ballot on a very crowded 1999 election. However in recent years, Evans has become a popular Hall of Fame debate in the sabermetric community and several articles have been written in support of his overlooked Hall of Fame candidacy. One particular writer, Patrick Languzzi is spearheading a campaign to put Dwight Evans on December’s Expansion Era ballot. Languzzi, who writes for MLB Reports as the Hall of Fame Correspondent, created his own website, Call to the Hall, which is devoted to bringing awareness to Dwight Evans’ overlooked Hall of Fame candidacy. Languzzi even started a petition which calls for Evans to be selected as one of the twelve finalists on December’s Expansion Era ballot. Languzzi was nice enough to take the time for me to interview him about his Call to the Hall website and petition.
JT: Patrick, you, along with Nick Carfardo of the Boston Globe were recently interviewed by Tom Caron on the New England Sports Network (NESN) to discuss Evans’ overlooked Hall of Fame candidacy (see link below). What was that experience like?
PL: The experience was validating for me, meaning, when I started this project, I never imagined it would have gone as far as it has, and gotten the attention it’s drawn. It’s great to see that I’m not the only one that feels that Evans’ case deserves to be revisited.
JT: You mention in the NESN clip that you got a chance to meet Dwight, what can you tell us about meeting him?
PL: Through all of my research, I’ve gotten to know Evans, and what I’ve found is that he is extremely humble and unwilling to discuss himself as a possible Hall of Fame candidate. He was humble as a player too. A good example of this is the clip from the 1987 All-Star game (see link to clip below) when Dwight fields a fly ball and fires a strike to home plate, Tim Raines the player at third holds from tagging up.
Ask the Reports: ATR Answers Your Baseball Questions – May 27th, 2012
Sunday May 27th, 2012
Jonathan Hacohen: Posted every Weekend: Your top baseball questions from the past week are answered. E-mail all questions to mlbreports@me.com, message us on Twitter, post on our Facebook Wall and leave comments on our website! There are many ways to reach us and we will get to your questions from all social media outlets!
Let’s get to your top questions of the week:
Q: What do you think about Honolulu (for MLB expansion)? They would get so many people during the summer for vacation. Robert
JH: Robert! I don’t think a week goes by where I don’t receive a question from you on MLB expansion. You know that it is one of my favorite topics- so inevitably, we end up discussing it seemingly at least once on ATR every week. Honolulu now…that is interesting. As we discussed in previous expansion talks, Major League Baseball will consider many factors in its next round of expansion. Population base and the availability of fans for games will be one key factor. Honolulu has apparently 337,000 residents while Hawaii itself is closing in on 1,000,000. Not bad. Not bad at all. But even with a strong population base, we would have to be realistic on the area. Travel will be a killer. Which division would we even consider putting them in? The climate would be perfect though. Nice and dry in the summer, warm but not overbearing. A very population destination for tourists, but with most trying to enjoy sun and beaches, I am not sure how baseball would go over as a tourist attraction.
Ultimately, distance will be the killer. Also, taxes I understand may be an issue as well. Les Murakami Stadium in Honalulu is home to the University of Hawaii baseball team. The stadium holds 4,312 and has turf. Guess what? A new stadium will need to be built to accommodate MLB. Will that happen? Many of the other candidates for MLB expansion will need to build a stadium as well. But at least those areas have a decent shot at a team. To get a good stadium, you need a rich owner with a supportive community willing to subsidize the venture. Hawaii folded its winter league in 2008, but I have read reports it could return. If the area could not keep the winter league, I think MLB expansion would be a tough sell. But if nothing else, distance is the killer. You can have one team in Hawaii and expect all the other teams in the league (especially in the division) to travel such a distance. Ten hours from Hawaii to NYC? No thanks. We need to be creative in thinking MLB expansion, but Honolulu is reaching a little too far. Read the rest of this entry