For the third time since the Veterans Committee was overhauled in 2001, no was elected to the Hall of Fame when the vote was announced Tuesday. The newly formed Veterans Committee gives voting privileges to all living members of the Hall -- currently 61 former players and 22 other honorees -- as well as one holdover from the old committee. Voting on former players only in odd-number years, the new committee has failed to elect anyone in three tries.

Changes to the Veterans Committee were implemented amid charges of cronyism when it elected Bill Mazeroski in 2001. At that point, the 15-member committee had elected someone in eight straight years.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way. Induction is exclusive to the point that no one is elected despite such worthy candidates as Gil Hodges, Tony Oliva and Ron Santo. Managers, umpires and baseball executives are on the ballot every four years, and this year’s vote bypassed union organizer Marvin Miller, umpire Doug Harvey and manager Whitey Herzog. The former Cardinals skipper would seem like an obvious choice, but he managed just 29 votes, less than half the number necessary for induction.

Herzog’s poor showing is hard to explain, and the Veterans Committee’s inability to elect anyone has sparked charges of elitism among some baseball writers. Hall of Famer Joe Morgan doesn’t agree with the criticism, saying the committee takes heat for coming to the same conclusion as the writers did years ago on the 2007 class of nominees. The former Reds star also countered talk of elitism by noting that he filled out all 10 spots on his ballot.

Yet, there seems to be no middle ground between adding members annually and never admitting anyone.

"We are disappointed that no one has been elected in the three voting cycles," Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark said Tuesday. "We will be evaluating this process and its trends at our next meeting, which is March 13, and discussing whether there should be any changes."

This writer would like to see changes. Getting a 75-percent majority to put someone into the Hall is extremely difficult with such a large voting body. One option is to reduce the percentage of votes required for induction, but the Hall of Fame may be reluctant to move away from such a long-standing tradition.

Another consideration is having the entire Hall membership vote to nominate candidates, with maybe five or 10 surviving the process rather than the large number that is nominated under the current system. Few of the nominees on this year's ballot were realistically in the running for induction anyway. The living writers, broadcasters and baseball executives in the Hall would decide which non-player candidates appear on the ballot.

Then the nominated class could be turned over to a smaller committee of 12 to 18 Hall of Famers, similar to the old Veterans Committee. The difference here is that the committee would be dealt a certain hand and couldn’t elect anyone beyond the list provided by the entire Hall membership. That should reduce concerns about cronyism at the same time it might make it possible to elect new members.

Perhaps this plan has its holes, but the current voting process seems to be a futile exercise that has little chance of inducting anyone. Maybe the writers got it right the first time when it comes to the Veterans Committee nominees, and there’s nothing to fix. On the other hand, if Herzog, Miller and Oliva are on the outside looking in, maybe it’s time to overhaul the Veterans Committee again.