HALL OF FAME ELECTION  1970
"Chairman of the Board" Wins Final Election
NEW YORK (Nov. 1) -- Whitey Ford was elected the sixth member of the UL Hall of Fame today, winning 81 percent of possible votes.  The Colts' 1st overall pick in the 1953 reentry draft, Ford burst on the scene in 1955, when he was 24-3 with a 2.89 ERA and 263 strikeouts.  He averaged 14 wins and nearly 200 strikeouts a year in seven years with Chicago, but came into his own after joining Brooklyn in 1960.  He was 23-5 in his first year at the Frank, and had back-to-back All-UL seasons in 1963-64, winning the Cy Young Award,  ERA and WHIP titles in 1964, and two strikeout titles in '65 and '66.  In his four peak years (1963-66), Ford was 85-41 with a 2.59 ERA and 1,226 K's.  Ford bounced around in his final seasons, playing for St. Louis, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, and had injury problems in his final year, spent with Triple-A Havana.  He retired at the end of the 1969 season and became the first player elected to the Hall under the new point voting  system.  Ford is also the first member of the Brooklyn Superbas dynasty of the early '60s to enter the league pantheon
     The name Whitey Ford is etched throughout the UL record books.  He ranks 2nd all-time in strikeouts, and 3rd in shutouts and complete games.  His 263 career wins ranks 5th all-time and his .643 winning percentage is 6th among pitchers with at least 100 wins.
     For the third year running, Carl Erskine finished second in the voting, with 67 percent.  In 1968 "Oisk" actually won the first round, but lost to Roy Campanella in the runoff, and last year--when voters still had to split a fixed number of votes--he finished a distant second to Johnny Antonelli.
     The candidate list will get a big boost next year.  Likely additions to the ballot include four-time Cy Young winner Gene Conley, six-time batting champion Granny Hamner, and four-time Gold Glove shortstop Harvey Kuenn.