Baseball is a great sport. It simply has to be to withstand all the dumb things done within its walls. Home field advantage in the most important series of the year is decided by an exhibition game. Their idea for selling the game to fans includes clearing the decks and giving Fox exclusivity on Saturday afternoons, making it impossible for people who don’t root for the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Cardinals to watch their teams play during those hours. The Royals lone appearance back on August 2 must have been the result of some administrative glitch.

And then there is the Hall of Fame ballot. I mean ballots. There are now three. One is done by the Baseball Writers Association of America, which votes on the more recently retired players. It first took place in 1936 and is the most common means of induction. But a number of older players felt that some of their contemporaries that did not receive the honor were still deserving of consideration despite the fact that they had already been considered and dismissed as unworthy. So the Veterans Committee was born.

The committee has undergone numerous changes in the last seven years and now votes every two years on players whose careers began in 1943 or later, with an additional group voting every five years on players whose careers began before 1943. The first such vote on the pre-1943 players occurred this past Sunday and resulted in the election of the first man to manage the Royals, Joe Gordon, who passed away thirty years ago and would probably have preferred that his approval came while he was still alive.

Personally, I think those who feel that you’re either in on the first vote or you’re out for good have a compelling argument. Goose Gossage was first eligible for induction in 2000 and didn’t make it. Eight years later he was in with the exact same stats he had in 2000. It is a difficult process to defend. Having said all that, if we’re going to have this silly Hall of Fame voter mulligan, we might as well get it right. And it won’t be right until three people can find their plaques on the wall in the village of Cooperstown.

Ron Santo, Gil Hodges and Bert Blyleven should be in today. Sooner if possible. Santo was a nine-time All-Star who also won five Gold Gloves. He retired in 1974 as the National League’s career leader in total chances, assists and double plays for a third baseman. Then there are the 342 homeruns, a number that looks a lot more impressive when you consider that he was just the second third baseman with 300 homers, joining Eddie Matthews.

Hodges is considered by his contemporaries as the best first baseman in the majors in the decade of the 1950’s. His 370 homeruns were the most ever by a right-handed hitter until that Mays guy showed up. Need a dramatic storyline to sell? He was the manager of the Miracle Mets of 1969.

Then there is Blyleven.

Every pitcher with 300 wins is either in the Hall of Fame or will be in the Hall of Fame. Blyleven finished just 13 wins shy of that mark. It is true that 287 isn’t 300, but why does it have to be 300 anyway? He has more wins than Robin Roberts and Ferguson Jenkins and Jim Palmer and Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal and they’re all in. He has sixty-three more wins than 1987 inductee Catfish Hunter. In fact eleven full-time starters that have played since the 1950’s have won fewer games than Blyleven and have gained admission into the Hall.

His strikeout numbers are even more impressive. Of the sixteen pitchers that have struck out at least 3,000 batters, eleven are eligible for the Hall of Fame. The only one that isn’t there is Blyleven. He received 62 percent of the vote in 2008 and will only be eligible through 2012.

I would vote him in but I don’t have a vote. However, I’m sure he will get there eventually, even if it takes whatever version of the Veterans Committee exists in 2030.