Thursday, January 13, 2000
Publicity, awareness lifted Perez
Writers hoped to avoid situation like Bunning's
BY JOHN ERARDI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
An awareness that this was probably Tony Perez's last decent chance to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the writers is probably what put him over the top this year, voters surveyed Wednesday said.
And the mailing campaign by both the Reds and a Perez friend in Miami may have opened a few eyes, too.
“There have been some tough experiences in the past, players such as Jim Bunning and Nellie Fox missing by two or three votes in their final year (15th) on the ballot,” said Leonard Koppett, columnist for the Alameda Newspaper Group, who voted for Perez for the first time this year.
“I didn't want to see that happen again. I didn't want Perez to be shut out (by the writers) because I failed to cast my ballot for him. I always felt he was worthy of the Hall of Fame. But my second step is to always ask, "Would the Hall of Fame be incomplete without him?' The answer is no. ... But I didn't want to see him shut out and passed on to the Veterans Committee.”
Perez was elected Tuesday in his ninth year on the ballot. He made it by 10 votes.
There is definite disagreement among the 499 voting members of the Baseball Writers of America on the issue of whether mailing in a blank ballot is an appropriate use of the electoral process.
Blank ballots are counted as part of the total pool of votes, from which 75 percent must be given to a certain player for him to gain election. Blank ballots increase the number of positive votes the candidate needs to be elected.
Six blank ballots kept Bunning out of the Hall of Fame in his 15th and final year on the writers' ballot, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin said. Bunning later was elected by the veterans committee.
The “nyet-niks,” as the blank balloters are known, also mailed in a half-dozen blanks this year, Conlin said. But Carlton Fisk and Perez still had enough support to get in.
Conlin, who has always voted for Perez, called the blank-vote maneuver a “a cynical use of the ballot.” He was pleased Perez was able to avoid a fate similar to Bunning's.
Conlin recalled how in Fox's last year on the ballot, Detroit newspaper writer Joe Falls missed the baseball writers' mailing deadline by a day. And Conlin, feeling Fox had no chance for election, failed to vote for him for the first time in several years.
“Nellie died after his 14th year on the ballot, and he missed election by two votes in his 15th and final year,” Conlin said.Writers knew this was Perez's last good chance for election by the writers.Last year, he was overshadowed by first-year candidates George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount; in future years, he would have had to contend with, among others, Kirby Puckett, Ozzie Smith and Dave Winfield.
“I think the main thing that got Perez the big boost was this being an "off' year,” said Bill Madden, a national baseball writer for the New York Daily News. “There were no automatics this year.”
Still, the writers said Perez's ninth-year election was impressive because he had remained a strong presence on the writers' radar since his first year in 1992, when he got 50 percent of the vote.
It's the longest a player has had to wait for election by the writers since Don Drysdale's 10-year wait ended in 1984.
Perez's 83-vote hike was the biggest since Luis Aparicio's 89-vote bump got him elected in 1984 after a six-year wait.
Madden, who has never voted for Perez, cited the Big Dog's failure to win a title in home runs or RBI or a Most Valuable Player award. But Madden said he has “no problem” with Perez being in the Hall.
“He's a class act,” Madden said. “I'm going to feel a whole lot worse voting for Eddie Murray.”
Tim Sullivan contributed to this report.
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