Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1945

The 1945 elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame included the first regular election to be conducted in three years, and only the second since 1939; in that year, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) had moved to hold elections every three years rather than annually. 1945 also witnessed the first attempt to elect figures from 19th century baseball since the Hall had opened in 1939.

The BBWAA election

Members of the BBWAA again had the authority to select any players active in the 20th century (after 1900), provided they had not appeared in a major league game in 1944. Voters were instructed to cast votes for 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall.

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A total of 247 ballots were cast, with 2495 individual votes for 94 specific candidates; 186 votes were required for election. The results were announced on January 28, 1945. The emphasis on the players of the 1900s and 1910s, who many voters felt should be given priority, again continued to increase beyond the levels seen in 1939 and 1942. Only 5 of the top 22 candidates in the voting, and none of the top 6, had seen any substantial play since 1917; only 3 of the top 36, and none of the top 22, had played their final season anytime between 1918 and 1933. 8 of the top 13 candidates were deceased. Players who had been retired over 27 years - 48 of the 94 named - received 72% of the votes.

Related Topics:
1939 - 1942

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For the first time in the six BBWAA elections, no candidate received at least 75% of the vote. Particularly in view of the fact that the next election was not scheduled to be held until 1948, that a new generation of players was quickly becoming eligible, and that increasingly fractured voting patterns would make selections more improbable, criticism became widespread that the election system needed to be reviewed and quickly revised; it was suggested that the Old-Timers Committee might select some of the earliest popular candidates to help clear the top of the ballot. At its September 1945 meeting, the Hall of Fame Committee ordered that the three-year wait between elections be abolished, and that annual elections resume under a revised format.

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Candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics:

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• Frank Chance - 179
• Rube Waddell - 154
• Ed Walsh - 137
• Johnny Evers - 134
• Roger Bresnahan - 133
• Miller Huggins - 133
• Mickey Cochrane - 125
• Jimmy Collins - 121
• Ed Delahanty - 111
• Clark Griffith - 108
• Frankie Frisch - 101
• Hughie Jennings - 92
• Wilbert Robinson - 81
• Pie Traynor - 81
• Hugh Duffy - 64
• Fred Clarke - 53
• Rabbit Maranville - 51
• Joe Tinker - 49
• Mordecai Brown - 46
• Herb Pennock - 45
• Joe McGinnity - 44
• Chief Bender - 40
• Eddie Plank - 33
• Ray Schalk - 33
• Bill Terry - 32
• Lefty Grove - 28
• Frank Baker - 26
• Carl Hubbell - 24
• Addie Joss - 23
• Ross Youngs - 22
• Dazzy Vance - 18
• Dizzy Dean - 17
• Bill Dickey - 17
• Johnny Kling - 12
• Charlie Gehringer - 10
• Nap Rucker - 10
• Babe Adams - 7
• Lefty Gomez - 7
• Harry Heilmann - 5
• Kid Nichols - 5
• Edd Roush - 5
• Sam Crawford - 4
• Ted Lyons - 4
• Bill Carrigan - 3
• "Wild Bill" Donovan - 3
• Hank Gowdy - 3
• Hank Greenberg - 3
• Bobby Wallace - 3
• Jesse Burkett - 2
• Kid Elberfeld - 2
• Eddie Grant - 2
• Gabby Hartnett - 2
• Bobby Lowe - 2
• Bill McKechnie - 2
• Deacon Phillippe - 2
• Branch Rickey - 2
• Casey Stengel - 2
• Zack Wheat - 2
• Ginger Beaumont - 1
• Donie Bush - 1
• Howie Camnitz - 1
• Max Carey - 1
• Earle Combs - 1
• Wid Conroy - 1
• Harry Davis - 1
• Joe DiMaggio - 1
• Bill Dinneen - 1
• Mike Donlin - 1
• Jack Dunn - 1
• Kid Gleason - 1
• Joe Gordon - 1
• Charlie Grimm - 1
• Heinie Groh - 1
• Dickie Kerr - 1
• Tony Lazzeri - 1
• Duffy Lewis - 1
• Herman Long - 1
• Sherry Magee - 1
• Pepper Martin - 1
• Bob Meusel - 1
• Pat Moran - 1
• Van Lingle Mungo - 1
• Danny Murphy - 1
• Claude Ritchey - 1
• Eppa Rixey - 1
• Charlie Root - 1
• Amos Rusie - 1
• Cy Seymour - 1
• Jimmy Sheckard - 1
• Billy Southworth - 1
• Bill Sweeney - 1
• Johnny Vander Meer - 1
• Cy Williams - 1
• Steve Yerkes - 1