We will soon know Gil Hodges’ Hall of Fame fate

There is not much more I can do to sell Gil Hodges to the Hall of Fame masses. It has been rather clear since the time he was eligible that he was as eligible as anyone to ever don a baseball uniform; and then he won the World Series, creating a Mets legacy which still feels cut short because of a fatal heart attack in 1972.

Hodges was as qualified numbers-wise as anybody who was his counterpart for the time and position he played; and then he pulled off arguably the most amazin’ moment in baseball history. The case has been made incessantly, most recently, and very succinctly I’ll add, by Tom Verducci, who did disclaim he has married into the legacy. Still, it cannot be stressed more how important it is to finally get this thing right, which is why I felt the need to bring it up one more time.

I urge all of you who have platforms like this to rise up and stress its importance leading up to the December 7 vote. Let’s catch this fever the way we’ve once again caught Star Wars fever.

I come at this with two intertwined yet separate passions: To atmospherically bring Brooklyn and its Dodgers to your TV screens one day, and as a rabid Mets fan. Through both passions, I have observed what makes Gil Hodges great. He just had that presence a community could rally around.

Hodges wasn’t a loud one, and he didn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve, which included keeping some of his traumatic war stories to himself, bottled up deep down inside while continuing to chain smoke. Though some of what made him great may have been a detriment in the long-term, we could all be better humans by studying this life and the way Gil Hodges went about it.

The reason Gil Hodges isn’t already in the Hall of Fame has to do with the fundamental flaws that are the Hall of Fame voting system. As more and more of the “Boys of Summer” Brooklyn Dodgers were eligible and made it, more and more, the writers would say to themselves, “Well, we can’t put them all in.”

A Hall of Famer is a Hall of Famer, regardless of whether or not they played with a bunch of Hall of Famers to dominate, as a team, an entire era. How bout dem Big Red Ma-chines?!

So, please, whatever you can do, let’s make this an insane grassroots effort as the latest push for Gil Hodges’ rightful place with a plaque amongst the all-time greats draws near.

Let’s get stuff trending on Twitter, shout it out through the Tweety hills. Off the top of my head, hashtags we could use include:

• #HodgesForHOF
• #DoRightByGil
• #VoteForGil
• #VoteForHodges
• #LongLiveGil
• #LongLiveHodges

You’re all creative. You can do it. Hashtag something, or whatever, but let’s finally get this done. Let’s get Gil Hodges in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

It’ll be about freakin’ time.