[VanillaGorilla]

There are 4 players on the spreadsheet that would get in on the Veterans Standard if the standards were to remain unchanged and they were screened after having been retired for 20 years.

One of the mechanisms I have not explained in detail is how players get removed from the spreadsheet. One way is by getting inducted into the HOF....the other way is a sliding scale of standards that I came up with on previous dry runs, and it has worked well.

Players on the sheet, after all first ballot screenings have been performed for available slots, are put into the list randomizer. I go through the list from top to bottom and if they don't have scores that are required to stay on the sheet (read ballot) they are removed. If they have scores high enough to stay on the ballot, but not sufficient to get into the Hall, a tally is given to them and they wait for a screening in another year. When a player has been screened once before, he has a higher standard to stay on the ballot for that second screening, and then a higher standard for each following screening. Eventually he is either inducted or removed from the spread sheet.

A player removed from the spreadsheet can still gain entry via a leader board selection, but that player once removed from the sheet.ballot cannot gain entry either through the standard screening or the Veteran Standard.

Even if a player has sufficient scores to reach the Hall on the Veteran Standard, he can be removed from the ballot if he has been screened often enough that the standard to stay on the ballot has become higher than the VS for induction at that time, but he has not been retired for 20 years. Again, such a player who would have scores to reach the Hall via the VS but does not have 20 years since retirement will be removed from the list and not be eligible for induction by any standard other than leader board placement.

The Veteran Standard was created in an attempt to mimic the purpose of the RL Vet Committee to honor those who were overlooked by the voters. If a player is being screened multiple times, he is not being overlooked, he is being examined closely. What the VS hoped to do here is catch those players who found themselves being on the bottom of the randomized list so often that they were not given a fiar chance to enter on their contemporary standards...they had literally been overlooked. The idea of giving deference in the consideration of entry to older players over younger retirees is a staple of the RL Hall tradition, and this mechanism has worked well in emmulating that aspect of the Hall.

On the BBREF fan Elo page, Al Lopez is number 888 among hitters. He is in the HOF. Lou Whitaker is 69th. He is not in the HOF. I am not wanting to argue the Hall worthiness of Whitaker. I am pointing out that the Hall has inducted players that are far down the list of what the conventional wisdom of baseball fandom produces.

I know this isn't the first time I have said this, but the point of this exercise was not to develop a HOF that was just and true to the notion that everyone in it was better than everyone not. It was to test a process that can result in inductions that resemble the RL HOF.

Bill Delancey and John Romano are akin to Schlak and Lopez and Fairly is akin to Whitaker (even more so like Bagwell, if he is not elected in January). This happened without me forcing any of the events or entries. And I know this isn't the first time I have said this, either....I am very pleased with these results.