The museum will welcome five new members during July’s Induction Ceremony, including former manager Dick Williams, the only living inductee of the class. Williams took three different teams to the World Series, winning back-to-back Series titles with the Oakland A’s in 1972 and ’73.

Williams also managed the 1967 ``Impossible Dream’’ Boston Red Sox which lost the Fall Classic in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals; and the 1984 San Diego Padres who lost in five games to the Detroit Tigers in the 1984 World Series.

Williams, who managed for 21 seasons, was known for his sharp tongue and authoritarian style, but made no apologies during a conference call with writers on Monday. ``Some players didn’t like my style and I stepped on some toes, but I don’t think any of my players complained about cashing their World Series checks,’’ Williams said. ``It’s a lot different now, I don’t think I’d last two weeks in today’s game.’’

Williams retired in 1988, and waited 20 years before his election.

``I’m thankful for the new procedures,’’ he said, adding when he received the news, he and his wife Norma broke down and cried.

At its July meeting this summer, the Hall of Fame Board of Directors voted to restructure the Committee on Baseball Veterans and its procedures for electing long-retired players, managers, umpires and executives.

The changes, Hall oficials said, maintain the high standards for earning election to the Hall of Fame, while the voting process will change, becoming three separate ballots _ players, managers/ umpires, and executives _ reviewed by three separate electorates.

In addition, a special committee will review the candidacies of players whose careers began prior to 1943.

``We are very pleased with the new procedures, very pleased with the outcome, and especially pleased for the families of our new inductees,’’ said Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark after making the election announcement in Nashville on Monday morning.

Also elected posthumously Monday was manager Billy Southworth and executives Barney Dreyfuss, Bowie Kuhn and Walter O’Malley. The five electees, along with any electee(s) to emerge from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote on Jan. 8, will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 27, 2008 as part of Cooperstown’s annual Hall of Fame Weekend.

Southworth managed for 13 seasons (1929, 1940-’51), including seven with the Cardinals and six with the Braves, posting a .597 winning percentage, fifth-best all-time, with a record of 1,044-704. Southworth guided his teams to four World Series appearances and two World Championships, posting a winning record in 10 of his 13 seasons, including three straight seasons of 105-wins or more, from 1942 to 1944 with St. Louis.

Dreyfuss totaled 43 years of service in baseball as an influential team owner and policy maker, as the first owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Following a 10-year tenure as part-owner of the Louisville Colonels in the American Association, Dreyfuss brought 14 players with him to the Pirates, including Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Fred Clark and Rube Waddell. Overall, his teams won six pennants and two World Series (1909, 1925), as he is considered one of the fathers of the modern World Series, brining the Series to reality in 1903 as the owner of the Pirates.

Kuhn served as Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1969-’84, the game’s fifth commissioner.

During his tenure, MLB attendance tripled and lucrative television contracts followed, on the heels of the introduction of nighttime baseball to the World Series. Kuhn is the first former commissioner elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame since Happy Chandler earned election in 1982.

``Bowie was very passionate about baseball and this brings him back in a way,’’ said his wife, Louisa, on Monday. ``Bowie absolutely loved the Hall of Fame I burst into tears when I got the news today.’’

O’Malley is noted as perhaps the most influential owner of baseball’s early expansion era, as owner of the Brooklyn and later, Los Angeles Dodgers.

Gaining control of the Dodgers in 1950, O’Malley led the club to four pennants and a World Series title in his first seven years, before leading baseball’s expansion west of the Mississippi, leading the charge to relocate the team to Los Angeles.

O’Malley’s son, Peter, said of his father was alive the first thing he would have done was called the people he worked with and thanked them.

``He was always surrounded by great people,’’ Peter said. ``He was also a visionary. I know the move out of Brooklyn was controversial. He was instrumental in the design of Dodger Stadium, which really opened people’s eyes to the fact that baseball stadiums can be attractive places to visit.’’

Players whose careers spanned a period beginning in 1943 will be considered every other year starting with the 2009 Induction year. Players whose careers began before 1943 will be considered every five years, beginning with the 2009 Induction year.

All Hall of Fame members will vote on 1943-and-beyond players in late 2008 for the 2009 Induction year. A special 12-member committee, yet to be appointed, will vote on players whose careers began to prior to 1943, at the Winter Meetings in December 2008 for the 2009 Induction year. Ballots for both the pre-1943 and 1943-and-beyond elections will be crafted and released in Fall 2008.