[paul]

If someone else has already posted about this, please delete. I'm surprised to be the first.

The Hall of Fame has announced yet another new system to replace the old Veterans Committee elections. The history of baseball is now divided into three eras: (1) Pre-1947, (2) 1947-72, and (3) 1973-present. Separate committees will be formed for each era, with one committee meeting each year. So, players in any given era will have a chance at election once every three years.

Each committee has 16 members, consisting of Hall of Famers, major league executives, veteran writers and historians. A 75% vote is still required. Each committee will be presented with a ballot selected by the Historic Overview Committee. That committtee has 11 members, all of whom appear to be veteran baseball writers.

The voting committees meet each year in person at the winter meetings. In my opinion, this opens the door for the kind of cronyism and vote trading that corrupted the process years ago and resulted in the selection of many of the least worthy HOFers. I guess we'll see how it works out this time.