The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected Eddie Mathews.

A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 7, 1978, with Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn presiding.

Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future BBWAA ballots but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.

The field included two MVPs (Wills and Denny McLain), one Cy Young Award winner (Denny McLain, who received the MVP the same year as one of his two Cy Young Awards; that same season, he was the last pitcher to win thirty games in a season) and two Rookies of the Year (Ron Hansen and Gary Peters).

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Ted Abernathy, Joe Azcue, John Bateman, Wade Blasingame, Don Buford, Donn Clendenon, Tony Cloninger, Moe Drabowsky, Joe Gibbon, Tom Haller, Steve Hamilton, Ron Hansen, Joe Horlen, Julián Javier, Denny Lemaster, J. C. Martin, Don Mincher, Gary Peters, Phil Regan, Jim Roland, Ron Taylor, Stan Williams, and Bobby Wine.