Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1980

The 1980 elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame followed the same system in use since 1968. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) held an election to select among recent players. The BBWAA election applied 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.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1960 or later, but not after 1974; the ballot included candidates from the 1979 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 1974. 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. The ballot consisted of 61 players; a total of 385 ballots were cast, with 289 votes required for election. 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.

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 is indicated in "bold italics"; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in "italics". The 38 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Mickey Vernon, Don Newcombe and Alvin Dark were on the ballot for the 15th and final time.

Player eligible for the first time who was "not" included on the ballot was: Dick Green.

External links

* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1980 1980 Election] at www.baseballhalloffame.org