Is this the year for the White Rat?

Is this the year for the White Rat?

Published Jan. 10, 2010 4:01 p.m. ET

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog, Gene Mauch and Danny Murtaugh are among the former managers who will be on the ballot when the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee votes next month.

Tom Kelly, Davey Johnson, Steve O'Neill and Charlie Grimm also are on the 10-man ballot for managers and umpires. The Hall released the names Tuesday.

Doug Harvey and Hank O'Day are the umpires up for consideration.

A separate ballot for executives and pioneers includes former owners Gene Autry (Angels), Ewing Kauffman (Royals), John Fetzer (Tigers), Jacob Ruppert (Yankees) and Sam Breadon (Cardinals) along with former players' association head Marvin Miller.

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Retired National League president Bill White and former general managers Bob Howsam, John McHale and Gabe Paul also will be considered.

Separate committees will gather at the baseball winter meetings in Indianapolis on Dec. 6, and vote totals will be announced the following day. Candidates must be on 75 percent on the ballots, and anyone elected will be inducted July 25 along with players elected in January by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

When the revamped Veterans Committee first deliberated on managers, umpires and executives two years ago, it elected former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth and ex-Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss.

Herzog and Harvey each fell one vote short. Miller got only three of 12 possible votes, down from 63 percent earlier in 2007 under the previous system.

The Veterans Committee has been revised twice since 2001, when charges of cronyism followed the election of Bill Mazeroski. What was a 15-member panel was expanded to include every living Hall member, but it failed to elect anyone in three tries.

The next veterans vote for players is in 2010. Last year, Joe Gordon was elected by the committee that studied pre-1943 players but no one who started after World War II was elected. Ron Santo came the closest, falling nine votes short.

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