After the former Cardinals star, one of the top-hitting catchers and switch-hitters of all time, had been knocked off the baseball writers’ Hall of Fame ballot after just one election in 1994 and after he had failed to gain enough favor in three different veterans’ elections, the 70-year-old Simmons finally received the ultimate individual prize for a player Sunday.
The Hall of Fame’s Modern Era electorate, in an announcement emanating from the baseball winter meetings in San Diego, gave Simmons at last 75 percent of the vote and and Simmons joined former players' association executive director Marvin Miller as new members of the Hall who will be inducted next July 26 in Cooperstown, N.