Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1999

The 1999 elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame followed the same system in use since 1995. The BBWAA election continued to apply a 75% rule to all eligible players, while the Veterans Committee met in closed door sessions to select from players ineligible for the BBWAA election, as well as managers and executives.

The induction ceremonies were held on July 25 in Cooperstown, with George Grande as emcee.

The BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1979 or later, but not after 1993; the ballot included candidates from the 1998 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 1993. 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 1999 election by the BBWAA were announced on January 5, 1999. The ballot consisted of 29 players; 497 ballots were cast, with 373 votes required for election. A total of 3348 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.74 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote (25 votes) will not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.

The Class of 1999 included the most first-year inductees (three) since the inaugural class of 1936.

Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a †. Mickey Lolich and Minnie Miñoso were on the ballot for the 15th and final time, although Miñoso's years of eligibility were not consecutive. The three 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 seven candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Players eligible for the first time who were "not" included on the ballot were: Juan Agosto, Wally Backman, Steve Balboni, Randy Bush, Iván Calderón, Henry Cotto, Glenn Davis, Ken Dayley, Frank DiPino, Bill Doran, Dan Gladden, Alfredo Griffin, Kelly Gruber, Neal Heaton, Steve Lake, Terry Leach, Bob McClure, Gene Nelson, Pete O'Brien, Geno Petralli, Ted Power, John Russell, Bryn Smith, Tim Teufel, Dickie Thon, Jose Uribe, Bob Walk, Chico Walker, Curtis Wilkerson, Glenn Wilson, Curt Young, and Matt Young.

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 1945 who played at least ten seasons; those who received 100 BBWAA votes in a year between 1945 and 1990; and those who received BBWAA votes on at least 60% of ballots cast in any single year since 1991. 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 Committee selected Orlando Cepeda, Nestor Chylak, Frank Selee, and Smokey Joe Williams.

J.G. Taylor Spink Award

Bob Stevens was elected the winner of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award.

Ford C. Frick Award

Arch McDonald was elected the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award.

External links

* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1999 1999 Election] at www.baseballhalloffame.org.