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PRINCETON, Ind. — A baseball player from Princeton is one of the six candidates elected to the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Through the Eras Committee, Gil Hodges was elected into this year’s Hall of Fame class. Hodges was both a first baseman and a manager in Major League Baseball from his rookie year as a player in 1943 until he retired from baseball altogether as a manager in 1971.

He played for the Dodgers in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles as well as the New York Mets from 1943 to 1963. Hodges batted .271 for his career which amassed over 19-hundred hits and 370 home runs. He was an eight-time All-Star, from 1949 to 1955 and in 1957.

After his playing days, Hodges managed the Washington Senators (’63 to ’67) and the New York Mets (’68 to ’71).

Hodges was only 47 when he died of a heart attack in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1972. He was an inaugural member of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

This was Hodges’ second to last year of eligibility for the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame 49 years after his death. Former players, managers, and other contributors to baseball can only appear on the hall of fame ballot posthumously up to 50 years after their death.

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