Last week's Veterans Committee vote was just the third player election and just the second for executives since the committee was revamped in 2001. And again no one was able to reach the magical 75% threshold and gain admission to the Hall.

It's clear that this system will never bear fruit, or rather Hall of Famers.

The last major-leaguer to be selected by the Veterans was Bill Mazeroski in 2001. That winter the Veterans were reorganized to include all living Hall of Famers and the elections were limited to one every two years for players and one every four for non-players (executives, pioneers, managers, and umps).

Meanwhile, the special Negro Leagues committee last year selected an orgy of 17 players and executives for enshrinement. Many of these selections raised quite a few eyebrows even when not viewed in the context of such a ludicrously immense class.

Yes, this might make the powers that be in Cooperstown a bit reluctant to return to a secret special committee whose voting tabulations are kept private. However, the system and the old-time would be better served if the committee were abolished altogether than to go through the motions with an ineffectual group.

Some are content to sit idly back while the Veterans are ignored. Who knows, maybe that's the ultimate goal for the revamped committee. Besides, what's the end result? Many say it is better to keep these man out than to allow latter-day Tommy McCarthys and Travis Jacksons in.

The basic problem is that there is and always has been two roads to the Hall, both with different election procedures and with wildly divergent standards. To illustrate the overall average for the 198 players selected by either the baseball writers or the veterans (or a special election) is 337.7 Win Shares and have had to wait an average of just over 14 years after becoming eligible to gain election. While the 103 picked by the BBWAA have average almost 380 Win Shares and a wait of over four years, 93 Veterans selections have averaged almost a hundred Win Shares fewer and have waited over 25 years.

Looking at the change over time, the pattern becomes clearer. First, here are the averages per decade for players selected for the Hall in one of the elections during that decade:

Other than the gluttony of the 1970s, the players have remained pretty consistent since the 1950s in career Win Share average if not waiting period. Next, here are the decade averages for the writers:

And finally the Veterans Committee:

Here's what happened: After lowering their standards in the Forties and Fifties, the writers limited their elections and (therefore) their selections in the Sixties while raising their standards slightly. The wait for the players who did go in became shorter then and has continued to shorten. So the writers become pickier but were able to concentrate on a worthy candidate more and more quickly.

Meanwhile, the Veterans alternated decades of high membership and low standards with those of high standards and low membership until, in reaction to the stasis the writers reached in the Fifties, they indulged for two decades on players of lower and lower standards. The membership began to slow, but the standards remained low until the committee was dramatically revamped in 2001.

After 2001, these once leaky faucet (the Veterans Committee) went from a trickle to being completely shut off.

So who cares? Even though we can't correct the past, at least now we are getting players who are truly plaque worthy, right? True, but who is being left out?

Take a look at the table below listing the number of players that were eligible for an election but were not selected even though they exceeded the Hall average for Win Shares (337). Also, listed is the number with 300 Win Shares (a Tropic of Cancer away from the 337-WS equator). Note the numbers were approaching zero around 1980, meaning that all players who met this criterion were the Hall, and have been growing ever since. Sure the standards remain high for the Hall but a number of worthy candidates are being overlooked arbitrarily:<./p>

Yr	voted by	>337 WS	>300 WS
1936	BBWAA	32	46
1937	BBWAA	31	45
1938	BBWAA	31	45
1939	BBWAA	28	41
1942	BBWAA	29	43
1945	BBWAA	29	44
1946	BBWAA	10	19
1947	BBWAA	8	18
1948	BBWAA	9	20
1949	BBWAA	9	21
1950	BBWAA	9	21
1951	BBWAA	8	19
1952	BBWAA	7	18
1953	BBWAA	6	17
1954	BBWAA	7	16
1955	BBWAA	6	13
1956	BBWAA	6	12
1958	BBWAA	5	11
1960	BBWAA	4	10
1962	BBWAA	4	9
1964	BBWAA	2	7
1966	BBWAA	2	7
1967	BBWAA	2	7
1968	BBWAA	2	5
1969	BBWAA	1	5
1970	BBWAA	2	6
1971	BBWAA	4	9
1972	BBWAA	4	8
1973	BBWAA	3	7
1974	BBWAA	3	7
1975	BBWAA	3	7
1976	BBWAA	2	6
1977	BBWAA	2	6
1978	BBWAA	1	5
1979	BBWAA	1	4
1980	BBWAA	0	5
1981	BBWAA	1	7
1982	BBWAA	2	8
1983	BBWAA	3	10
1984	BBWAA	2	9
1985	BBWAA	2	10
1986	BBWAA	2	9
1987	BBWAA	1	9
1988	BBWAA	1	10
1989	BBWAA	2	12
1990	BBWAA	2	13
1991	BBWAA	2	13
1992	BBWAA	4	16
1993	BBWAA	5	17
1994	BBWAA	5	21
1995	BBWAA	6	20
1996	BBWAA	6	20
1997	BBWAA	6	21
1998	BBWAA	7	21
1999	BBWAA	8	22
2000	BBWAA	6	19
2001	BBWAA	7	20
2002	BBWAA	8	21
2003	BBWAA	8	20
2004	BBWAA	8	20
2005	BBWAA	7	18
2006	BBWAA	6	17
2007	BBWAA	6	17
1937	Centenial	31	45
1938	Centenial	31	45
1939	Old Timers	28	41
1944	Old Timers	30	45
1945	Old Timers	29	44
1946	Old Timers	10	19
1949	Old Timers	9	21
1953	Veterans	15	23
1955	Veterans	15	22
1957	Veterans	15	22
1959	Veterans	15	22
1961	Veterans	13	21
1962	Veterans	14	23
1963	Veterans	13	20
1964	Veterans	11	18
1965	Veterans	10	17
1966	Veterans	10	17
1967	Veterans	10	18
1968	Veterans	10	18
1969	Veterans	10	18
1970	Veterans	10	18
1971	Veterans	10	15
1972	Veterans	10	15
1973	Veterans	10	15
1974	Veterans	10	15
1975	Veterans	10	15
1976	Veterans	9	14
1977	Veterans	9	14
1978	Veterans	9	15
1979	Veterans	9	16
1980	Veterans	9	16
1981	Veterans	8	15
1982	Veterans	8	16
1983	Veterans	8	16
1984	Veterans	8	15
1985	Veterans	7	14
1986	Veterans	7	14
1987	Veterans	7	14
1988	Veterans	7	14
1989	Veterans	7	14
1990	Veterans	7	14
1991	Veterans	7	14
1992	Veterans	7	14
1993	Veterans	7	14
1994	Veterans	7	17
1995	Veterans	7	17
1996	Veterans	7	17
1997	Veterans	8	19
1998	Veterans	7	18
1999	Veterans	7	18
2000	Veterans	7	17
2001	Veterans	7	18
2002	Veterans	7	19
2003	Veterans	7	19
2004	Veterans	7	20
2005	Veterans	8	22
2006	Veterans	9	24
2007	Veterans	9	24