The Washington Post Times Herald

Time now, perhaps, to call a halt to the Baseball Hall of Fame balloting lest the mechanics of the voting elevate to the Cooperstown shrine grist, of ball players who don't properly belong. The dangers of the annual ballot are now becoming apparent.

Succeeding elections have been skimming the cream off the top of the player lists, which are now so thinned out that players who couldn't command a half dozen votes a few years back have vaulted among the leaders in the balloting. It could lead to a gradual cheapening of the honor of being in the Hall of Fame.

It is significant that players who weren't deemed worthy of Cooperstown and were steadily rejected in the voting a few years ago are now being dragooned into the Hall of Fame. Their stature hasn't increased, obviously, but the standards are being lowered by the demand that somebody must be voted for each year.

The situation calls for a pause of a few years in the voting to permit fame to catch up with some of the players, or vice versa. There are some names near the top of the list like Hank Greenberg and Joe Cronin who deserve enshrinement, but most of the other current leaders are pale company for such as the Cobb-Speaker-Johnson-Ruth-Mathewson immortality.

It is apparent, too, that the game, currently, isn't producing the giant-type performer of the past. I would be reluctant to name more than three players now in the game who honestly deserve enshrinement at Cooperstown at the level on which the Hall of Fame was originally established.

Stan Musial will certainly qualify for Cooperstown at the end of his playing career and so will Ted Williams and Bob Feller. They are the only stick-outs in the majors. Consistent stardom ought to be a prime requisite for Cooperstown. Even such a fine pitcher as Bob Lemon doesn't have a big enough spread. To suggest such as Willie Mays for Cooperstown after one good season, sensational as it was, would be to profane the entire Hall of Fame array. Willie could make it by putting together some more like that.

This is not to quarrel with the induction of the latest four into the H. of F. DiMaggio certainly deserved the honor, and so did Ted Lyons and Gabby Hartnett. Dazzy Vance, in my opinion, didn't quite rate with that trio, but that is mere opinion. Beginning next year, however, promotion to the Hall of Fame could become almost automatic, because candidates will be moving up almost by default.

It was on September 28, 1938 that Hartnett took his biggest stride toward the Hall of Fame. That was the day the Cubs were trying to win the pennant from the Pirates, who had led the National League since July 12 and already had their World Series tickets printed. In a little more than a month, the Cubs had gained nine games on Pittsburgh.

The Pirates still held a half-game lead that fateful day in Chicago. The score was tied in the ninth 5-5, two were out, Hartnett was up for the Cubs and Mace Brown had a count of two strikes, no balls against him. The next pitch: Home run into the left field bleachers and the Cubs wound up as pennant winners.

Clark Griffith once upon a time was talking about catchers. That old National League-hater, who wouldn't concede that the NL was even a major league, finally made a startling admission. "Best catcher in baseball," he whispered as if afraid of being overheard, "is that feller Hartnett, even if he is in the other league."