Gil Hodges probably wouldn’t have wanted a big fuss over his election on Sunday to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but those who love him won’t have it any other way.
The former manager of the expansion Washington Senators and the skipper of the 1969 “Miracle Mets” in New York, as well as a beloved All-Star for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, was atop many lists of the most prominent omissions from Cooperstown. Before Sunday, he had been on the ballot 34 times and received more than 3,000 votes without being elected.
In Washington, where Hodges managed from 1963-67 between two trades that brought him in and out of the nation’s capital, he is remembered as the manager who helped turn Frank Howard from a streaky power hitter into a feared slugger.