The old committee was doing its job inducting people, but it was unfortunately inducting the wrong people, and everyone knew it.  The number one criteria for getting in seemed to be being an old teammate of a member of the committee.  I think the final straw was Ted Williams' efforts to get Dom DiMaggio in the Hall. Now Dom was a good player and he wouldn't have been the worst player in Cooperstown . . . but c'mon.  It's Dom DiMaggio and he's hardly in immortal territory.  And it was so obviously a naked attempt at Williams rewarding an old buddy rather than objectively asking "Who's the best player not in the Hall of Fame?"

Had Williams not died, I imagine Dom DiMaggio would have made it into Cooperstown.  And that would be used for decades as an argument for putting in Vada Pinson, Ken Griffey Sr., Roy Sievers and heck, Ray Lankford.

The new veterans vote seems to have swung the other way, with several players arguing that no one was worthy to sit with them. On top of that, you've got dozens of players voting for their own teammates and coaches but this committee isn't stacked with, say, friends of Ted Williams or Frankie Frisch, like the other one was, so no one knows 75% of the electorate.  It does seem that some of the ringleaders of the "no one should get in" group, i.e. Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson, have softened their position and that should help Santo and maybe Hodges.  (Although I don't think Gil Hodges belongs in.  Torre would be a better choice as a player and as a manager.)

My guess is that it is going to be very, very close on Santo--somewhere between 73% and 77% of the vote.  The upper end gets him in.  The lower end doesn't.

Once upon a time it was an unwritten rule that you didn't campaign for an Oscar.  Once people started campaigning and winning Oscars, that kind of went out the window.