COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. _ In an effort to get younger, even when it comes to long retired players, the Hall of Fame is changing the Veterans Committee setup. Starting next year, it will introduce new "era" categories to allow more consideration of modern players.
The current format has categories for three eras, including one that lumps together everyone who played from 1973 to the current time. The new format will have these groupings: Early Baseball (1871-1949), Golden Days (1950-1969), Modern Baseball (1970-1987) and Today's Game (1988-2016).
Jeff Idelson, the Hall's president, said that the Hall now includes twice as many players who debuted before 1950 than those who broke in after that year. "When you start to study the numbers ... I guess analytics have hit the Hall of Fame, too, at this point," he said. "We felt that perhaps the past 50 years weren't quite as well represented as the previous decades."
He also announced that Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith has been added to the board of directors.
