No new Hall of Famers elected in Golden Era Committee vote

The Hall of Fame's Golden Era Committee has proven itself to be stingy again.

No one was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame through the Golden Era Committee's vote — though both Dick Allen and Tony Oliva fell one vote short. Jim Kaat, who fell one vote short at the last Golden Era vote in 2011, was two short this time.

The results were announced Monday at the Winter Meetings, signaling that it is Hall of Fame season once again. Results from the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot, which includes Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson, will be announced in January.

Ten names were on the Golden Era Committee's ballot — Allen, Oliva, Kaat, Gil Hodges, Ken Boyer, Minnie Minoso, Billy Pierce, Luis Tiant and Maury Wills were the players, while ex-Reds GM Bob Howsam was the lone executive.

The Golden Era Committee examines the Hall of Fame cases of players and executives from 1947-1972, who had already exhausted their eligibility on the baseball writers' ballot. It's another chance (usually a second or third chance) for players. It's one of the sub-committees of the Veterans' Committee, which does this sort of thing every year, also with the Expansion Era Committee and the Pre-Intergration Committee.

Wills received nine votes. Minoso got eight. No one else earned more than three votes.

The Golden Era Committee consists of 16 voters, a mixture of ex-players, executives and media members that rotates each time. Among the current committee: Hall of Famers Jim Bunning, Ozzie Smith, Al Kaline, Rod Carew and Don Sutton, Royals owner David Glass and ex-manager Jim Frey.

Like the BBWAA Hall of Fame vote, 75 percent of the vote was needed here — which is 12 out of 16 votes. Committee members described their examination of each candidate as "intense," but noted that everyone ultimately fell short. Jane Forbes Clark of the Hall of Fame called the results "a reminder that election is incredibly difficult."

This is the second such Golden Era Committee vote. The first one was for the 2012 Hall of Fame class. Of the 10 players on the ballot, only Ron Santo was elected, getting 15 of the 16 votes.