Veterans Committee
Voting is conducted annually in December, with any elected persons inducted into the Hall of Fame the following calendar year.
Backed by former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Bill Terry and sportswriters J. Roy Stockton and Fred Lieb, who had covered Frisch's teams, he managed to get five of his teammates elected to the Hall by the committee between 1970 and 1973: Jesse Haines, Dave Bancroft, Chick Hafey, Ross Youngs, and George Kelly.
Starting in 1995, the Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to elect as many as two executives, managers, umpires, and older major league players—the categories considered in all its meetings since 1953.
By a new arrangement it separately considered candidates from the Negro leagues and from the 19th century with authority to select one from each of those, via two special ballots.
During much of its existence, the Veterans Committee consisted of 15 members selected by the Hall of Fame for defined terms.
The committee met annually to consider candidates in four separate categories: players, managers, umpires, and executives.
The Veterans Committee met privately, and its ballots and voting results were generally not revealed prior to 2003.
From the mid-1970s until 2001, the top candidate in each category was elected to the Hall of Fame if he earned at least 75% of the committee's votes.
Following the 2007 elections, the makeup of the committee was again changed, and several procedures were also modified:[4] The threshold for induction remained at 75% of all who voted on the appropriate ballot.
The existing Historical Overview Committee formulated each ballot for release in the October or November before the next planned induction ceremony.
Each committee convened at the Winter Meetings in December to consider and vote on candidates from its assigned era.
Committee meetings originally scheduled for December 2020 (Golden Days and Early Baseball) were postponed for a year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[2] A one-year waiting period beyond potential BBWAA eligibility (which had been abolished in 2016) was reintroduced, thus restricting the committee to considering players retired for at least 16 seasons.
As of November 2010, for 2011 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, the only committee members announced were those voting for the post-1972 Expansion Era candidates:[1]
As of November 2012, for 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, the 16-member Pre-Integration Era Committee was announced:[11] The Pre-Integration Committee's 16-member voting electorate, appointed by the Hall of Fame's Board of Directors, was announced at the same time as the ballot of 10 candidates:[12] The Expansion Era Committee's 16-member voting electorate, appointed by the Hall of Fame's Board of Directors, was announced at the same time as the ballot of 12 candidates.
The Golden Era Committee's 16-member voting electorate, appointed by the Hall of Fame's Board of Directors, was announced at the same time as the ballot of 10 candidates.
The Pre-Integration ballot for election was released on October 5, 2015; final voting was conducted by the Pre-Integration Committee, a 16-member body which met at baseball's winter meetings in Nashville on December 6, with 75% (12 of 16 votes) required for election; results were announced the following morning.
[15] Speaking on MLB Network's Hot Stove immediately after it broadcast the announcement, Major League Baseball's official historian John Thorn expressed surprise and disappointment at the results, noting that he had felt there were three particularly strong candidates (prior to the announcement, he had commented favorably on the candidacies of Doc Adams and Harry Stovey); he speculated that the number of good candidates may have deadlocked the voting once again, and suggested that the Hall may need to amend the voting process in the future.
