0
By BOB DUTTON
The Kansas City Star
SURPRISE, Ariz. | Think you know who belongs in the Royals’ Hall of Fame? Fine. The Royals want to hear from you.
A revamped balloting format, effective this year, includes fan participation through online voting at www.royals.com/hof. Balloting runs through noon on March 18 and will constitute four of the 40 total ballots.
Living Hall members and select members from the club’s board of directors, front-office personnel and media members make up the rest of the panel.
“The opening of the Royals Hall of Fame building in 2009 was an ideal time to revamp the system for considering future inductees,” said Curt Nelson, who serves as the Hall’s director.
“This new process has elements taken from the National Baseball Hall of Fame system along with a few wrinkles we borrowed from other clubs.”
There are 18 players on the 2011 ballot: Brian Anderson, Kevin Appier, Al Cowens, Al Fitzmorris, Jason Grimsley, Bo Jackson, Mike Macfarlane, Darrell May, Brent Mayne, Jose Offerman, Darrell Porter, Joe Randa, Kevin Seitzer, Scott Service, Michael Tucker, U.L. Washington, John Wathan and Kris Wilson.
Balloting on eligible players will take place every other year under the new format. Nominees must be cited on 75 percent of cast ballots to gain election. Those cited on 10 percent of cast ballots remain eligible on the next ballot.
Members of the voting panel can select up to three players. The player receiving the highest online fan support will get two votes, those finishing second and third will get one vote apiece.
“From a functional standpoint,” Nelson said, “the internet and social media have made this type of voting more logistically possible. With that in mind, when it was decided to tweak the voting procedure, one of our main goals was to make the process as inclusive as possible.”
Eligible candidates must have been active with the Royals for at least three seasons while accumulating at least 1,500 plate appearances or have pitched at least 150 innings.
This year’s ballot also includes all players who received at least two votes in either of the preceding two ballots under the old procedure.
The new format includes a Veterans Committee that will evaluate the candidacy of non-player personnel in even-numbered years. It will also consider players who received votes in previous years but are no longer eligible under the current format.
The Hall of Fame, established in 1986, has 23 members.
Read more: http://www.kansascit...l#ixzz1F1mcIXqF
