Could Dick Allen be Considered for the Hall of Fame this Year, in the Second Year of the Hall’s Newly Structured Committee System?

Changes made last year to the Baseball Hall of Fame committee system may lead to the enshrinement of more modern players.  Whether that will include Dick Allen is an open question.

There are two ways that a baseball player can be elected the Hall of Fame. The first way is by eligible voters who are members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). Players become eligible for election five years after retirement. They will remain on the ballot so long as they receive at least 5% of the vote. In a year when a player receives less than 5% of the vote, that player drops off the ballot and can no longer be considered by the BBWAA.

The second way player can become elected to the Hall of Fame is through the Hall’s committee system. For most of the Hall’s existence, this was known as the Veterans Committee. The Veterans Committee would consider not only players who were no longer eligible for election by the BBWAA, but would also consider executives, umpires, and managers for enshrinement.

In 2010, the Baseball Hall of Fame gave more structure to the committee system. Instead of one Veterans Committee, the Hall divided it into three Era Committees.  They were the Pre-Integration Era, from 1871 to 1946, the Golden Era, from 1947 through 1972, and the Expansion Era, from 1973 through to the present. Each year, during baseball’s winter meetings, one of the Era Committees would meet on a rotating basis.  The Hall’s Historic Overview Committee would prepare a slate of candidates from the time period represented by that years’ Era Committee. The committee would then vote on which, if any, of the candidates would be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. To be successful, a candidate needed three-quarters of the committee members to vote for him. 

After two cycles of the Era Committees, in 2016, the Hall of Fame once again altered the structure. The eras now divided into four: Early Baseball, 1871 through 1949; Golden Days, 1950 through 1969; Modern Baseball, 1970 through 1987; and Today’s Game, 1988 onward. 

The rotation was also changed so that each committee did not meet at the same frequency. Last year, the Today’s Game Committee met at the winter meetings. This year, the Modern Baseball Committee will meet during the winter meetings. Next year, the Today’s Game Committee will meet again. The year after that, the Modern Baseball Committee will meet again. In the 2020 winter meetings, the Golden Days and the Early Baseball Committees will meet. That will be followed by four years where the Today’s Game Committee and the Modern Baseball Committee will alternate each year. In the last year of this new 10 year cycle, the Golden Days Committee will meet once again.

The Hall of Fame adopted the structure because there was criticism that contemporary Baseball players were under-represented in the Hall. Players like Alan Trammell and Mark McGwire have fallen off the BBWAA ballot. This structure will give those players a greater opportunity to be considered for enshrinement. 

One of the consequences is that people who made contributions to the game prior to 1949 will only receive consideration once every 10 years.  That means people like Doc Adams and Harry Stovey, who were last considered in the 2015 winter meetings, will not be considered again until 2020. If they failed to receive election then, they will not be considered again until 2030.

But this may not be such a big deal. In the two times that the Pre-Integration Committee met since 2010, nobody from the early days of baseball was elected to the Hall of Fame. Perhaps having the committee responsible for the early days meet with far less frequency will create greater nostalgia, and greater pressure to elect one or two of baseball’s early pioneers to the Hall.

Of course, the dividing lines between the different eras are arbitrary. There will be players whose career spanned more than one era. The Hall of Fame's answer to this dilemma is that the players are to be considered in the era where he had the greatest contribution. But that may be a subjective call, and stir up more controversy. 

Consider, for example, the case of Dick Allen. Dick Allen won the Rookie of the Year award with the Phillies in 1964. He played with the Phillies through 1969, with three All-Star appearances. The Phillies traded him to St. Louis in 1970. St. Louis traded him to the Dodgers in 1971. From 1972 through 1974, Allen played with the Chicago White Sox. He ended his career 1977, after two more years with the Phillies and one year with Oakland.  He played in both the eras covered by Golden Days and the Modern Baseball Committees. 

But during the 1970s, Allen made four all-star appearances and won the American League MVP award with Chicago in 1972. He led the American League in home runs in 1972 and 1974. Arguably, then, Allen made his greatest contribution to the game during the 1970s, when he had more All-Star appearances, and an MVP award.

Allen was last considered for the Hall of Fame in 2014, when the Golden Era Committee met. He missed election by a single vote. He was slated to be considered again in the 2016 winter meetings. However, that is when the Hall of Fame changed the structure.  Instead of having the Golden Era Committee meet, the newly formed Today’s Game Committee met and elected former Commissioner Bud Selig. 

Could Allen be considered by the Modern Baseball Committee this winter?  There is still argument over whether that will happen. Last year, Jeff Idelson, the Hall’s President, was quoted as saying that Allen’s best years were with the Phillies during the 1960s.  If the Hall of Fame sticks to that position, then Allen will not be considered for Hall of Fame election again until the year 2020.

Of course, to the cynical eye, it is no coincidence that the Hall of Fame changed it’s committee structure last year when sycophants could still fawn over the candidacy of Bud Selig one year after his retirement, thereby ensuring his election to the Hall of Fame, while cheating Allen out of an opportunity. The Hall of Fame could make amends, by recognizing that its eras structure is arbitrary, and that Allen did make major contributions during the 1970s, thereby rendering him eligible for Hall of Fame election this year by the Modern Game Committee.

William J. Kovatch, Jr. 

References

Baseball Hall of Fame, “Eras Committees,” https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-fame/eras-committees.

Travis Durkee, “Baseball Hall of Fame 2015: Dick Allen, Tony Oliva Fall One Vote Short of Election,” Sporting News (December 8, 2014) https://www.google.com/amp/www.sportingnews.com/amp/mlb/news/baseball-hall-of-fame-2015-golden-era-committee-allen-oliva/ctwve75dxnjq1bccad94p10b6.

Matt Eddy, “Hall of Fame Gives Expansion Era Stars a Fresh Start,” Baseball America (July 24, 2016) https://www.google.com/amp/www.baseballamerica.com/majors/hall-fame-gives-expansion-era-stars-fresh-look/%3Famphtml=1.

Jay Jaffe, “Hall of Fame’s Era Committees Changes Are Welcome,” Sports Illustrated (July 26, 2016) https://www.google.com/amp/amp.si.com/mlb/2016/07/26/baseball-hall-of-fame-era-committees-rule-changes.

William C Kashatus, “Phillies’ Dick Allen Belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Philadelphia Inquirer (July 26, 2017) https://www.google.com/amp/www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/phillies-dick-allen-belongs-in-the-hall-of-fame-20170726.html%3famphtml=y.

Craig Muder, “Former Slugger Dick Allen One Step from Cooperstown,” Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-fame/golden-era/allen-dick.