Baseball group adds no new members

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., Feb. 26 (UPI) -- No one made it into the National Baseball Hall of Fame Wednesday in balloting by the revamped Veterans Committee.

A source said none of the 42 eligible players, managers, umpires, and executives received the necessary 63 votes from the 85-member committee. Among those on the ballot were Marvin Miller and Joe Torre.

The source said former Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges came the closest to election, falling 11 votes shy. Former umpire Doug Harvey was next, getting to within 18 votes of election.

The Veterans Committee was reconfigured following the 2001 season, when Bill Mazeroski earned induction. Until then, the committee consisted of 15 members, and induction usually involved behind-the-scenes politicking.

The new format is more similar to the current writers' process. The committee, the 58 living Hall of Fame members, 25 Hall of Fame writers and broadcasters, and two members of the former Veterans Committee, votes every two years.

The changes were prompted by charges of cronyism by the then-15-member panel.

The Veterans Committee gives another chance to those players bypassed in the regular voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The 26 player candidates this time around were put together by a BBWAA-appointed screening committee.

Any choices by the Veterans Committee would have joined Eddie Murray and Gary Carter in this year's class at Cooperstown, N.Y. Induction is set for July 27.

Other prominent players eligible included former Roger Maris, Thurman Munson, Bob Meusel, and Joe Gordon, all ex-Yankees, as well as Dick Allen, Ted Kluszewski, Tony Oliva, and Minnie Minoso.

Among the executives eligible were Walter O'Malley, Buzzie Bavasi, Charlie O. Finley, and former commissioner Bowie Kuhn.