What's the point, then?

The Baseball Hall of Fame is an irritating institution at times. Especially at times like this:

One more vote, and Tony Oliva would have been on a plane, heading west to warmer weather at the annual baseball winter meetings and a news conference about his induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Instead Oliva watched from his home in Bloomington on Monday when Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the Hall of Fame’s board of directors, announced that no one on the 10-person ballot received the 12 votes required for election into the Hall of Fame by the 16-member Golden Era committee.

Then Clark added the jaw-dropping details.

“The vote totals are as follows,” she began. “Dick Allen and Tony Oliva, 11 votes … ”

Many in the audience — many of them media members — groaned at the close call.

It's frankly a stupid exercise. If you aren't willing to vote people in, why have the committee at all?

Personally, I think the best player who was denied yesterday wasn't Oliva, or Dick Allen, or Jim Kaat, although I'd be willing to argue for Oliva and Kaat. The guy who deserves to be in is Minnie Minoso, a great player who lost a chunk of his career to the color line. I'd also argue that Luis Tiant is at least as deserving as Kaat. But it doesn't matter, apparently.