Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1977

The 1977 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 1957 or later, but not after 1971; the ballot included candidates from the 1976 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 1971. 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 34 players; a total of 383 ballots were cast, with 288 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 one candidate who received at least 75% of the vote and was elected is indicated in "bold italics"; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in "italics". The 11 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Pee Wee Reese, George Kell and Walker Cooper were on the ballot for the final time.

Players eligible for the first time who were "not" included on the ballot were: Bob Aspromonte, Clete Boyer, George Brunet, Dean Chance, Ty Cline, Clay Dalrymple, Dick Ellsworth, Jake Gibbs, Tony González, Mudcat Grant, Dick Hall, Jim Hannan, Mike Hershberger, Chuck Hinton, Mack Jones, Cal Koonce, Jim Maloney, Lee Maye, Mike McCormick, Don Pavletich, Claude Raymond, Howie Reed, Dick Schofield, Al Spangler, George Thomas, Zoilo Versalles, and Al Weis.

External links

* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1977 1977 Election] at www.baseballhalloffame.org