Gil Hodges finally a Hall of Famer after fascinating, heartbreaking decades of votes

Editor's Note: With the election of Zeeland native Jim Kaat to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, The Sentinel will look at the careers of his fellow electees. Today: Gil Hodges.

Gil Hodges is the most fascinating Hall of Fame case of anyone who has ever hit a ballot.

And Hodges has been on a lot of ballots. ... A LOT.

It is fascinating because he seemed like a lock to get in the Hall of Fame decades ago, but somehow it took until 2021 to get the Brooklyn Dodgers' first baseman to Cooperstown.

He was voted in by the Golden Era Committee along with Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva and Minnie Minoso and will be inducted in July.

So why did it take 53 years since appearing on his first ballot to be elected?

It is difficult to determine.

The short answer is his numbers were borderline. That is without question. He hit 370 home runs, had 1,274 RBIs, 1,921 hits, a .273 batting average, 43.9 WAR and 120 OPS+. He also won the first three Gold Gloves at first base in his last years as a regular and managed the Miracle Mets.

Still borderline, but the managing and fielding improve his case big time, plus the narrative of being a leader on one of the most popular teams in baseball history, a World War II hero and being one of the players with the highest character in baseball history.

But when you look at his path on the ballot, it gets more baffling.

Hodges first hit the writer's ballot in 1969, earning 24% of the vote. He jumped to 48.3% in his second year, then 50% in his third year. It seemed he would easily get to 75% at that rate.

But it never happened. He reached more than 60% of the vote three times, including 63.4% in 1983, his final year on the ballot.

That is interesting enough that he never got that next step of votes, but even more baffling is the fact that he had more votes than his teammate Duke Snider four times before Snider jumped him and was elected in 1980. He had more votes than Pee Wee Reese nine times, who was elected by the Veterans Committee in 1984.

His final year on the ballot, he had more votes than Nellie Fox, Billy Williams, Red Schoendienst, Jim Bunning, Orlando Cepeda and Bill Mazeroski, who would all precede him into the Hall of Fame.

That was just the final year.

Twelve years earlier, when he hit 50% for the first time, he was fourth on the ballot, finishing ahead of Enos Slaughter, Johnny Mize, Reese, Schoendienst, George Kell, Hal Newhouser, Phil Rizzuto, Bob Lemon, Snider, Bobby Doerr, Fox and Richie Asburn, who would all make the Hall.

The writers had him ahead of 12 people who are Hall of Famers that final year and he out-voted 27 Hall of Famers at least once, including 500-home-run-club-members Harmon Killebrew and Eddie Mathews, 300-game-winner Early Wynn, the best pitcher of the 1950s Robin Roberts and the winningest pitcher of the 1960s, Juan Marichal.

How did they all pass him?

One of the reasons was Hodges died in 1972 while still managing. Sometimes when that happens voters rally around the recently deceased, but if that doesn't happen, voters aim toward living candidates.

But looking at ballot history, the top 10 candidates every year have eventually made the Hall of Fame nearly every year and Hodges was regularly in the top five as high as third.

It is not baffling to see Hodges as a borderline candidate, but it is baffling, confusing, intriguing, enraging that he could out-vote 27 other future Hall of Famers only to have every single one of them make it ahead of him.

Finally, that is over. He was voted in the Golden Era Committee 53 years after he hit a ballot and 49 years after he died. His widow, Joan, is 95 years old and got the call.

It was a half-century of validation on so many levels that one of the greatest players, heroes and human beings was finally elected to the Hall of Fame, where he belongs.

— Contact Sports Editor Dan D'Addona at Dan.D'Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Gil Hodges finally a Hall of Famer after decades of votes