Baseball Hall of Fame has new favourites

U.S. Hall of Fame will be adorned by former Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, while his longtime adversary, players' union boss Marvin Miller, was left out for the second time this year.

Photo: Baseball Hall of Fame has new favourites

Former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth and ex-Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss also were elected.

Manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey each missed induction by a single vote. Miller did not come close.

The Vets panel was changed after failing to elect anyone in three tries and replaced by one with a majority from MLB management - the same group Miller once fought against for player benefits like free agency and salary arbitration.

"I think it was rigged, but not to keep me out. It was rigged to bring some of these in," Miller said by telephone after being informed of the results by The Associated Press. "It's not a pretty picture."

Williams, who made his debut with the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox in 1967 and went on to win the 1972 and '73 World Series with the Oakland Athletics, is the only living inductee.

O'Malley moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, helping open the American West to MLB. He received the minimum nine votes necessary from a 12-member panel that voted on executives and pioneers.

Dreyfuss, who received 10 of 12 votes, helped end the longtime feud between the American and National Leagues when he and Boston owner Henry Killilea agreed to meet on the diamond after the 1903 season.

The World Series was born.

Southworth, who was chosen on 13 of 16 ballots from the panel that considered umpires and managers, won four pennants and two World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Braves.

Kuhn, who died in March at the age of 80, was MLB's fifth commissioner, serving from 1969-84 and overseeing the game when attendance tripled. During essentially the same era, Miller was leading the players to more lucrative and more revolutionary gains, taking the average salary from $19,000 to $241,000.

The 90-year-old Miller received only three votes from the 12-member Veterans Committee, far short of the nine needed for induction. He missed election by 10 votes earlier this year by a committee that included all living members of the Hall.

In the vote earlier this year, O'Malley was supported by 44 percent and Kuhn 17 percent, while Miller received 63 percent. Among managers, Williams got 37 percent.

"There was a very open and frank discussion about each of the candidates," said Jane Forbes Clark, the Hall of Fame chairman. "Everyone on that committee knows Marvin and respects what he did for the game. And that showed in the discussions."