The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected two, Rollie Fingers and Tom Seaver.

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 (Foster and Blue), four Cy Young Award-winners (Blue, who also won the MVP the same year, Seaver, who won three times, John Denny and Pete Vuckovich) and two Rookies of the Year (Seaver and John Montefusco).

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Bruce Bochte, Barry Bonnell, Enos Cabell, Al Cowens, Julio Cruz, Terry Forster, Wayne Gross, Marc Hill, Dane Iorg, Roy Lee Jackson, Cliff Johnson, Jim Kern, Rick Langford, Randy Lerch, Buck Martinez, John Montefusco, Omar Moreno, Bob Owchinko, Greg Pryor, Dave Rozema, Vern Ruhle, Dick Ruthven, Jim Slaton, Jason Thompson, Dave Tomlin, Jerry White, Terry Whitfield, Milt Wilcox, and Jim Wohlford.

Ritter Collett (1921–2001) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer.