With Joan Hodges, dubbed the “First Lady of Brooklyn Baseball,” celebrating her 88th birthday Sept. 28, it is again time to think about what it will take to get Brooklyn Dodgers’ hero Gil Hodges into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

A petition is circulating to elect Hodges to the Hall, and it has nearly 1,700 signatures with a goal of 2,000.

Hodges will be on the Veterans Committee ballot at baseball’s Winter Meetings this December and will need 12 of the 16 votes for enshrinement.

Sign the petition by visiting http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gil-hodges-belongs-in-the-baseball-hall-of-fame.