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Second chance Veterans Committee elects Mazeroski, Hilton Smith
Updated: Wednesday March 07, 2001 8:23 AM
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Bill Mazeroski, the slick-fielding second baseman best remembered for hitting one of baseball's most famous home runs, has a new moniker: Hall of Famer. The former Pittsburgh Pirates star was elected for induction Tuesday by the Veterans Committee, which also picked Negro leagues player Hilton Smith while bypassing Dick Williams, Gil Hodges, Dom DiMaggio and Marvin Miller for at least another year. Mazeroski, who retired in 1972 after 17 major league seasons, came within one vote of being selected by the panel last winter. He was in the Pirates spring training clubhouse in Bradenton when he learned the news and made the 45-minute drive to Tampa for the announcement. "I really don't know what to say. I never ever expected to be here," he said before slipping on a Hall of Fame jersey and cap.
"You dream of a lot of things. You want to be in the big leagues. You want to make the All-Star game. You want to be in a World Series. You want to do all those things. But you never dream of this. It's pretty exciting. I just hope I can live up to it." The selection was announced by an ecstatic Joe Brown, a member of the Veterans Committee and a former Pirates general manager who called Mazeroski the finest second baseman he's ever seen. Mazeroski, 64, was only a .260 career hitter. But he was a seven-time All-Star and won eight Gold Gloves for the Pirates, taking part in a record 1,706 double plays at second base. "I've seen second basemen all the way back to the early '30s and defensively I know of no one who's his equal. I don't know anything they could do as well as he could do with the glove," Brown said. "With the bat, he was underrated. He drove in a lot of big runs for our club. I don't think the quality of your performance is entirely based upon how much you hit. but when you hit. And, Bill drove in a lot of big runs for us in late innings."
None of Mazeroski's hits were bigger than the ninth-inning homer at Forbes Field that won Game 7 of the 1960 World Series for the Pirates against the Yankees. While it made him an instant hero in Pittsburgh, he said there is a whole generation of New Yorkers who will never forgive him. "I really don't think of it unless somebody talks about it, and hardly a day goes by when somebody doesn't talk about it," Mazeroski said. "The New York people are still mad at me ... There's a whole group of people who grew up going to the ballpark with their dads and they haven't forgotten." Induction ceremonies will be held Aug. 5 at Cooperstown, N.Y. Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield were elected in January by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The Vets were allowed to pick up to four new Hall of Famers, one from each of four categories: former major leaguers, Negro leaguers, 19th century players and personnel, plus a composite of managers, umpires, executives and Negro leaguers. In 1992, Mazeroski's last year on the BBWAA ballot, he was listed on 182 of 430 ballots, 42.3 percent. A player needed 323 votes for election that year. The results of Tuesday's balloting were not released. With the veterans panel down to 14 members because of Ted Williams' recent open-heart surgery, it took 11 votes -- 75 percent -- for election. Smith, a teammate of Satchel Paige on the Kansas City Monarchs, died in 1983. He was 72-32 in 146 games from 1937 to 1948. His best season was 1941, when he went 10-0, and he also finished his career with a 6-1 record in exhibition games against major league teams. Mazeroski doubts people will ever stop reminding him of the biggest hit of his life. But he hopes his induction alters the perception that outstanding defensive players who lack imposing offensive statistics don't belong in the Hall of Fame. "Defense has always taken a back seat to offense. It's been like that throughout the years," he said. "It would be nice if this could change something."
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