Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1947

The 1947 election to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame again followed a major revision of the methods used one year earlier. The ongoing difficulties in electing modern players led the Hall of Fame Committee to make further changes in the ballot process of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), and to redefine the electoral jurisdiction of the Old-Timers Committee.

Related Topics:
1947 - Baseball Hall of Fame - Baseball Writers Association of America

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the January 1946 BBWAA election failed to elect any inductees, capping a 7-year period in which only 1 player had been elected, the Hall of Fame Committee concluded that the wide field of candidates from 1900 to the present was making it impossible for any single candidate to gain votes on 75% of all ballots. In response, the Committee selected at its April 1946 meeting 11 inductees, including most of the popular candidates from the era between 1900 and 1918; there was even some support on the committee for removing the BBWAA from the selection process entirely. There was a great deal of criticism regarding the committee's decision in this regard, as they had been understood to only have the capacity to select players from the 19th century; many observers believed the committee was infringing upon the BBWAA's jurisdiction over players of the 20th century. However, the committee met again in December 1946, and formally revealed its previously unannounced decision that the two groups of candidates would no longer be separated by the year 1900 but rather by a fixed distance in time from the present day, initially set at 25 years. Players retired before that point would be electable by the Old-Timers Committee, with the BBWAA retaining jurisdiction over more recently retired players.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~