Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 2001

The 2001 elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame introduced a new election system. The Baseball Writers Association of America's (BBWAA) election to select from among recent players retained the same rules. However, the Veterans Committee election process was overhauled. The Veterans Committee held elections under the old system, since the new system was not enacted until late in the year. The next Veterans Committee elections, for both players and non-players, was in 2003.

The induction ceremonies were held on August 5 in Cooperstown, with Commissioner Bud Selig presiding.

The BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1981 or later, but not after 1995; the ballot included candidates from the 2000 ballot who received at least 5% of the vote but were not elected, along with selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1995. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.

Voters were instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. Results of the 2001 election by the BBWAA were announced on January 16, 2001. The ballot consisted of 32 players; 515 ballots were cast, with 387 votes required for election. A total of 3258 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.33 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote (26 votes) will not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.

Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a †. The two candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in "bold italics"; candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in "italics". The 13 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

José Rijo, who received only one vote, resumed his major league career in 2001-2002; he again became eligible on the 2008 ballot.

Players eligible for the first time who were "not" included on the ballot were: Scott Bankhead, Kevin Bass, Bud Black, Jerry Browne, Steve Buechele, Danny Cox, Jose DeLeon, Scott Fletcher, Tom Foley, Jim Gott, Atlee Hammaker, Brian Harper, Greg A. Harris, Billy Hatcher, Dwayne Henry, Tim Hulett, Chris James, Bill Krueger, Mike LaValliere, Manuel Lee, Candy Maldonado, Mike Moore, Rob Murphy, Matt Nokes, Jose Oquendo, Spike Owen, Mike Pagliarulo, Gerald Perry, Dennis Rasmussen, Randy Ready, Franklin Stubbs, Mitch Webster, and Bill Wegman.

The Veterans Committee

The Veterans Committee, since 1995, had been authorized to select up to two players per year, and in addition up to one player from the late nineteenth century and up to one player from the Negro Leagues. Eligible candidates for the two-player allotment included those players whose careers began in or before 1946 who played at least ten seasons; those who received 100 BBWAA votes in a year between 1947 and 1992; and those who received BBWAA votes on at least 60% of ballots cast in a single year since 1993. Players on Major League Baseball's ineligible list or who received votes on less than 5% of ballots cast in any year in which they were on the BBWAA ballot were ineligible.

The Veterans Committee selected Bill Mazeroski and Hilton Smith.

Rules enacted in August 2001 provided that the Veterans Committee would be expanded from its previous 15 members, elected to limited terms, to include the full living membership of the Hall. The new Committee, at the time of its adoption, included 61 living Hall of Famers, 13 living recipients of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, 13 living recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award, and three members of the previous committee who were grandfathered in, as their terms had not yet expired. Elections for players retired over 20 years would be held every other year, with elections of non-players (managers, umpires and executives) held every fourth year. The first year of elections for both categories under this new scheme would be 2003.

J.G. Taylor Spink Award

Ross Newhan was elected the winner of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award.

Ford C. Frick Award

Felo Ramirez was elected the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award.

External links

* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=2001 2001 Election] at www.baseballhalloffame.org.