HALL OF FAME DESERVES HIGH STANDARDS.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

If they had a Hall of Fame for Halls of Fame, baseball's would be the only member. Unlike football's and basketball's, its elections ignite annual debates, and its hazy standards haunt the subconscious of the nation's sports fans.

If they had a Hall of Fame for Hall of Fame debates, this year's would be a first-ballot honoree. Because of the unusual outcome of the 1996 voting, as well as the curious candidacies of three repeat hopefuls, Monday's announcement from Cooperstown, N.Y., is eagerly awaited.

This much is beyond debate:

Thirty players are on the ballot delivered to 400-some veterans of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

They include eight players - retired for five years now - who are on the ballot for the first time: 1978 National League Most Valuable Player Dave Parker, 1986 NL Cy Young Award winner Mike Scott, 1981 American League homers and RBI leader Dwight Evans, Ken Griffey (Sr.), Terry Kennedy, Terry Puhl, Rick Reuschel and Garry Templeton. Of those, only Parker would seem to have a shot at the Hall.

The other 22 are trying again to win the support of 75 percent of the voters and thus earn enshrinement. They are Steve Garvey, Bobby Bonds, Bob Boone, Dave Concepcion, Ron Guidry, Keith Hernandez, Tommy John, Jim Kaat, Mickey Lolich, Fred Lynn, Minnie Minoso, Graig Nettles, Jim Rice, Ron Santo, Rusty Staub, Bruce Sutter and Luis Tiant; Dick Allen and Joe Torre, each on the ballot for the 15th and last time; and the subjects of this year's argument, former Dodgers and Angels pitcher Don Sutton, knuckleballer Phil Niekro and Big Red Machine third and first baseman Tony Perez.

Sutton is eligible for the fourth time after drawing 63.8 percent of the votes in 1996, Niekro for the fifth time after getting 68.3, and Perez for the sixth time after getting 65.7. Remember that last year, for only the seventh time ever and the first time since 1971, nobody was elected to the Hall.

Did the voters, grown accustomed to no-doubt candidates like Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Reggie Jackson and Tom Seaver in recent years, raise the bar too high? And have many of them misplaced their priorities by passing up Sutton, Niekro and Perez?

The three players, though never teammates, now are linked in our minds because, where Cooperstown is concerned, their pros and cons are so similar.

Sutton: The 1966 NL Rookie of the Year went on to pitch for 23 seasons, never going on the disabled list, winning 324 games, helping the Dodgers to three World Series. No eligible pitcher with 300 or more victories has ever been kept out of the Hall. But Sutton was not a superstar (by the stricter definition then in force), never his league's leading pitcher and rarely his team's.

Niekro: His main qualification is that he won 318 games - while pitching most of a 24-year career for weak Atlanta Braves teams - and his seasonal stats are spiced with the bold type that signifies a league leader. But Niekro, like Sutton, never was spectacular. He bitterly suggests that voters downgrade him for throwing a knuckleball, accounting for his workhorse numbers.

Perez: In 23 seasons, he drove in 1,652 runs, which is Hall of Fame production. But he never led a league in a major offensive category. In fact, he never led a team. One writer this week said Perez was ``unfairly penalized'' because he played for the powerful Cincinnati teams of the 1970s. Retort: That didn't keep Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan out of the Hall, and it's not what's stopping Pete Rose.

An Associated Press writer hopes this is the year the Hall of Fame voters ``finally decide to reward consistency.'' But that's the point - the Hall of Fame has never rewarded unspectacular consistency or been designed to. It's reserved for the batters, pitchers, managers, executives and others who made the game special.

We don't send people to the U.S. Senate because they keep their lawns mowed.

And we don't call this the Hall of Durability.

The writers faced some provocative choices this year. Nobody can define a Hall of Famer, but they know one when they see one. The trouble is, there's a lot of room for disagreement.

Most likely, Sutton, Niekro or Perez has been voted into immortality, or two or all three of them. Less likely, somebody else on the 30-man ballot has been honored.

I wouldn't be unhappy to see Sutton, Niekro or Perez enshrined, particularly Niekro, whose knuckleball made him a singular figure for much of three decades. But I'd be happier to see the writers confer further honor on the 228 men who already have plaques in the Hall of Fame - and, once again, elect nobody.