Harvey hoping Veterans ballots will finally say, 'Yer in!'
Heaven is knock, knock, knockin' on Cooperstown's door.
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| Doug Harvey worked 4,888 regular-season games. (Provided to SportsLine) |
So lots of folks are holding their breath, and truth be told, those closest to Doug Harvey might even be saying a few prayers right about now.
"There have been Princes and Earls and everything you can think of in the way of high nicknames in the game," Harvey, the man who became umpiring deity over a 47-year career, said with that low chuckle of his over the telephone the other day. "But name another person that the players called 'God.'
"The people who have to do the voting, I hope they take that into consideration."
"I voted for him," Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter says. "Did you know why they called him 'The Lord'? Because he was never wrong."
The Lord, God ... when Harvey was in the game and at the top of his profession -- which pretty much was for all 31 seasons he delivered world-class work for the National League between 1962 and 1992 -- the references were interchangeable.
But the real reason why Harvey is the one to watch on this year's 42-man Veterans ballot -- a list that includes such intriguing possibilities as Ron Santo, Tony Oliva, Thurman Munson, Marvin Miller and Walter O'Malley -- is because of how he finished the last time he was on it, in 2003.
Then, Harvey topped the non-playing side of the ballot (managers, executives and umpires) with 61 percent of the vote, missing the required 75 by those 13 votes. Former Dodgers owner O'Malley (48 percent) was next, and Miller (44 percent), who essentially founded the players union, finished third.
So here we are four years later, and Harvey remains at the forefront not only because he came tantalizingly close last time, but because of what he could do for his chosen profession this time around.
It is easier for Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda (another Harvey supporter) to pass unrecognized through the streets of Los Angeles than it is for an umpire to pass through the gates of Cooperstown.
Did you know: While there are 198 former players, 16 former managers and 23 former executives with plaques in the Hall, only eight former umpires have been enshrined?
Not since Nester Chylak in 1999 has an umpire been admitted to Cooperstown, and since 1977, only three have been elected -- Al Barlick (1989), Bill McGowan (1992) and Chylak. The others are Bill Klem and Tom Connelly (1953), Billy Evans (1973), Jocko Conlan (1974) and Cal Hubbard (1976).
