As in the past, the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from a ballot of recently retired players, with results announced on January 6, 2016; Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were elected to the Hall of Fame.

On the day before the actual induction ceremony, the annual Hall of Fame Awards Presentation took place.

[8][9] ESPN.com columnist Jim Caple noted in the days before the announcement of the 2012 results that the PED issue and the BBWAA's limit of 10 votes per ballot was likely to result in a major backlog in upcoming elections:[9] Due to the steroid issue and a general lack of consensus, the following players will probably be on the ballot in three years: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Sammy Sosa, Jeff Bagwell, John Smoltz, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, Mike Mussina, Jeff Kent, Larry Walker, Alan Trammell, Fred McGriff, Rafael Palmeiro, Lee Smith, Tim Raines, Gary Sheffield, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling and, of course, Bernie [Williams].

Another ESPN.com writer, Tim Kurkjian, noted that the 2013 ballot would include several new candidates who either tested positive or were strongly linked to PEDs:[10] The next Hall of Fame ballot will include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Curt Schilling.

They all have Hall of Fame numbers, some stronger than others, but Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Piazza certainly are not going to be elected on the first ballot — and in the case of Bonds, Clemens and Sosa, they might not make it to Cooperstown for many, many years to come.In his first year on the ballot, Ken Griffey Jr. received 99.3% of the vote, a BBWAA election record at the time (surpassing the 98.84% of Tom Seaver).

Players who were eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Ronnie Belliard, Eric Byrnes, Frank Catalanotto, Jesús Colomé, Elmer Dessens, Pedro Feliz, José Guillén, Cristian Guzmán, Bob Howry, Gabe Kapler, Mike Lamb, Jason LaRue, Ron Mahay, Dámaso Marte, Gary Matthews Jr., Gil Meche, Brian Moehler, Chad Moeller, Bengie Molina, Russ Ortiz, Chan Ho Park, Jay Payton, Mike Redmond, Juan Rincón, David Riske, Scott Schoeneweis, Scot Shields, Russ Springer, Fernando Tatís, Jeff Weaver and Gregg Zaun.

In keeping with the voting procedure by eras, the BBWAA-appointed Historical Overview Committee, made up of 11 BBWAA members, identified ten Pre-Integration candidates who were judged to have made their greatest contributions from the origins of the sport to the end of baseball's color line in 1947.

The eleven BBWAA-appointed Historical Overview Committee members were Dave Van Dyck (Chicago Tribune); Bob Elliott (Toronto Sun); Jim Henneman (formerly Baltimore Sun); Steve Hirdt (Elias Sports Bureau); Rick Hummel (St. Louis Post-Dispatch); Bill Madden (formerly New York Daily News); Jack O'Connell (BBWAA secretary/treasurer); Jim Reeves (formerly Fort Worth Star-Telegram); Tracy Ringolsby (MLB.com); Glenn Schwarz (formerly San Francisco Chronicle); and Mark Whicker (Los Angeles News Group).

The new committee will consider figures whose greatest contributions occurred before 1950 (a slightly broader time frame from its predecessor), but will not hold its first meeting until 2020 as part of the 2021 election process.

[14] The recipients are not members of the Hall of Fame but are featured in a permanent exhibit at the National Baseball Museum.

On December 8, 2015, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy received 185 out of 417 of the votes cast, making him the 2016 recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award.

While the process will continue to involve three annually rotating voting bodies, the groups of candidates to be considered by each committee have changed.

In addition, the number of finalists will be reduced from 10 to 8, and the three ballot slots that had been filled by fan voting on the Hall's Facebook page will now be chosen by a committee of baseball historians.

The Hall's official announcement called him "quite possibly the first celebrity sportscaster... renowned as the most recognized personality during radio’s formative years."

He began his broadcasting career in 1923 with WEAF (now known as WNBC) in New York City, and called 12 World Series, countless other baseball games, and 10 other sports until his death in 1942.