DODGERS NOTEBOOK: NO HALL PASS FOR EX-PLAYERS.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Dodgers legends Gil Hodges, Don Newcombe and Maury Wills failed to gain entry to baseball's Hall of Fame yet again Tuesday, and so did everyone else whose name appeared on the ballot of a veterans committee that seems to have impossibly high standards.

The late Hodges, a cornerstone of the Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s, received 50of the 62 votes needed for election (75 percent of the 82 ballots cast). Wills, who stole a then-record 104 bases and won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1962 and currently works as a spring-training instructor with the team, received 33 votes.

No one got in, including former Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo, who got 57 votes. Longtime major league pitcher Jim Kaat was just behind Santo and just ahead of Hodges. Former outfielder Tony Oliva finished between Hodges and Wills.

Newcombe got 17 votes.

The veterans committee was restructured after 2001, when it elected Bill Mazeroski to the Hall. The result was a committee that now includes all 61 living members of the Hall, along with a handful of writers and broadcasters -- that has yet to elect a single player to the Hall in six years of voting.

All of which leads to the question of whether they ever will.

"I wish I could tell you something," Wills said after learning of the ballot results. "But I just don't know. I maintain the belief and the good faith that they know what they are doing, and we might not understand it."

Wills did get seven more votes than he received in 2005 (the veterans committee votes every other year), but Hodges actually lost ground after getting 52 votes two years ago.

Longtime Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, who died in 1979, also fell short on the "composite" ballot for non-playing personnel.

Wills said he still believes he will one day get in.

"But I don't know if it will be during my lifetime," said Wills, who is 74. "Am I going to get to enjoy it? I feel like one day Buck O'Neal (will get in), but he won't get to enjoy it."

Lid lifter: The Dodgers will take five regular position players -- one more than the league-mandated minimum for road games -- to Walt Disney World for their Grapefruit League opener Thursday against Atlanta.

Shortstop Rafael Furcal will lead off and be followed by center fielder Juan Pierre, with third baseman Wilson Betemit, catcher Russell Martin and right fielder Andre Ethier batting farther down the lineup.

Reserve infielders Olmedo Saenz (first base) and Ramon Martinez (second base) also will start, as will outfield prospect Matt Kemp in left. Left-handed starter Randy Wolf is tentatively scheduled to pitch two innings, followed by Chad Billingsley and non-roster invitee Travis Smith for two innings each.

Smith, 34, is a little-known journeyman the Dodgers signed as a free agent who realistically has no shot of making the Opening Day roster. He has 42 career big-league appearances with four different clubs -- including two stints with the Braves -- dating to 1998, when he made his debut with a scoreless, two-inning relief appearance for Milwaukee.

"I don't know a lot about him," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "But I'm anxious to watch him pitch."

Little hopes to get an inning apiece for Chin-Hui Tsao, Tim Hamulack and Jonathan Meloan.

The Dodgers have 60 players in major league camp, and Little said some of those players might have to play in minor- league games just to get enough at-bats or innings pitched. But Little said there probably won't be any official cuts made until after March 15, the last of foursplit-squad dates on the Grapefruit schedule.

The Dodgers will play a four- to five-inning intrasquad game at Holman Stadium this morning.

Sailing along: Although Little plans to protect Takashi Saito's injured right calf by holding him out of game action until at least the latter part of next week, the closer has been on a regular throwing program all spring and has even started a running regimen.

"He threw two innings of (live) batting practice (Monday) and came out of it great," Little said. "He is gradually increasing his running, which is all great."

Saito hurt himself while jogging in Japan more than a month ago, then aggravated the injury when he tried to resume running about three weeks later.

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Dodgers closer Takashi Saito thows a bullpen session Tuesday in Florida.

Richard Drew/Associated Press