1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting


Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1946 were conducted by methods refashioned and then fashioned again during the year. As in 1945, the Baseball Writers' Association of America voted by mail to select from recent players, and elected no one. Also, as in 1945, the Old Timers Committee responded by electing the biggest class yet, then 10 and now 11 people: Jesse Burkett, Frank Chance, Jack Chesbro, Johnny Evers, Clark Griffith, Tommy McCarthy, Joe McGinnity, Eddie Plank, Joe Tinker, Rube Waddell, and Ed Walsh.
The election of the 11 players was announced in April 1946. At that time, Burkett, Evers, Griffith, Tinker, and Walsh were still living. The June 13, 1946, induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, honored former Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who had been elected to the Hall of Fame shortly after his death in late 1944. The players elected in 1946 were inducted—along with players elected the following year—on July 21, 1947, in Cooperstown. Johnny Evers had died in March 1947, and of the four inductees still living, only Ed Walsh was at the ceremony.
Most of those "old timers" were star players from the 1900s and 1910s rather than the 19th century. Afterward, the jurisdiction of the BBWAA was formally reduced to cover only players who retired during the last 25 years; for the 1947 election, those would be players active in 1922 and later. Perhaps the relatively narrow scope would help the writers concentrate their votes on a few candidates. To make certain, the rules for 1947 provided for a runoff ballot in case of no winner on the first ballot. Also, on December 3, 1946, the BBWAA limited voting to writers who had been members for at least 10 years.

BBWAA election

Because the Baseball Writers' Association of America had failed to elect any candidates in 1945, and had elected only one player since 1939, the previous delay of three years between elections had been eliminated in September 1945 by the Hall of Fame Committee, and annual elections restored. In response to the high number of candidates drawing votes in the 1945 election, a two-step ballot process was created to narrow the field for a final vote. The first ballot would proceed in the same manner as previous elections, with voters free to name any 10 candidates. However, there would be no possibility of any inductees being elected in this vote; instead, the top 20 candidates would proceed to a final ballot. In order for any candidate to be elected, at least 200 ballots would have to be cast in each phase of the election.
In addition to the field being narrowed in this manner, it was hoped that the absence of several previously popular candidates would clear the way for others; the 10 players elected by the Old-Timers Committee in 1945 had received 26% of the vote in the last BBWAA election, and had included seven of the top 16 candidates. It was hoped that the revised approach and reduced field of candidates would result in up to five new members of the Hall annually.

Nominating stage

Members of the BBWAA again had the authority to select any players active in the 20th century, provided they had not appeared in a major league game in 1945. Voters were instructed to cast votes for 10 candidates. The top 20 candidates would advance to the final ballot, but the vote totals from the first ballot would not be revealed until the second election was over.
In addition, the Hall of Fame Committee had instituted a set of criteria for the voters to observe in completing their ballot; for each candidate, they were to take into consideration:
  1. playing ability
  2. integrity
  3. sportsmanship
  4. character
  5. contribution to the team on which they played and to baseball in general.
A total of 202 ballots were cast, with 1,948 individual votes for 76 specific candidates, an average of 9.64 per ballot; due to a tie for 20th place, the top 21 candidates were announced on January 3, 1946, and advanced to the final ballot.
Even following the previous year's election of several players from that era, the emphasis on the stars of the 1900s and 1910s – who many voters felt should be given priority – was again evident, although not quite at the levels seen previously. Only five of the top 14 candidates in the voting, and none of the top five, had seen any substantial play since 1917; only two of the top 26, and none of the top 19, had played their final season anytime between 1918 and 1933. Players who had been retired over 28 years—35 of the 76 named—received 53% of the votes. No player received 75% of the vote in this stage; even if the rules had allowed a selection at this point, none would have occurred.
Individuals who were barred from baseball were still not officially ineligible. Shoeless Joe Jackson received two votes; this was the first time since 1937 that anyone who had been thrown out of baseball had received any votes, and it would be the last time any such candidate received any recognized votes. Candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics; players selected by the Old-Timers Committee in 1946 are marked with an asterisk.
PlayerVotesPercentChange
Frank Chance*14471.3 1.2%
Johnny Evers*13064.4 10.1%
Miller Huggins12963.9 10.1%
Rube Waddell*12260.4 1.9%
Ed Walsh*11556.9 1.4%
Frankie Frisch10451.5 10.6%
Carl Hubbell10150.0 40.3%
Mickey Cochrane8039.6 11.0%
Clark Griffith*7336.1 7.6%
Lefty Grove7135.1 23.8%
Pie Traynor6532.2 0.6%
Mordecai Brown5627.7 9.1%
Joe Tinker*5527.2 7.4%
Joe McGinnity*5326.2 8.4%
Rabbit Maranville5024.8 4.2%
Charlie Gehringer4321.3 17.3%
Herb Pennock4120.3 2.1%
Dizzy Dean4019.8 12.9%
Bill Dickey4019.8 12.9%
Frank Baker3919.3 8.8%
Chief Bender3919.3 3.1%
Ray Schalk3617.8 4.4%
Eddie Plank*3416.8 3.4%
Bill Terry3115.3 2.3%
Dazzy Vance3115.3 8.0%
Jimmie Foxx2612.9-
Ross Youngs2512.4 3.5%
Harry Heilmann2311.4 9.4%
Johnny Kling209.9 5.0%
Addie Joss146.9 2.4%
Nap Rucker136.4 2.4%
Edd Roush115.4 3.4%
Sam Crawford94.5 2.9%
Babe Adams63.0 0.2%
Lou Criger63.0-
Rube Marquard63.0-
Zack Wheat63.0 2.2%
"Smoky Joe" Wood52.5-
"Wild Bill" Donovan42.0 0.8%
Lefty Gomez42.0 0.8%
Paul Waner42.0-
Ted Lyons31.5 0.1%
Jesse Burkett*21.0 0.2%
Donie Bush21.0 0.6%
Jack Coombs21.0-
Harry Davis21.0 0.6%
Gabby Hartnett21.0 0.2%
Shoeless Joe Jackson21.0-
Bill McKechnie21.0 0.2%
Dave Bancroft10.5-
Ginger Beaumont10.5 0.1%
Bill Bradley10.5-
Jack Chesbro*10.5-
John Clarkson10.5-
Gavvy Cravath10.5-
Bill Dinneen10.5 0.1%
Jack Dunn10.5 0.1%
Eddie Grant10.5 0.3%
Charlie Grimm10.5 0.1%
Waite Hoyt10.5-
Fielder Jones10.5-
Bill Killefer10.5-
Otto Knabe10.5-
Herman Long10.5 0.1%
Sherry Magee10.5 0.1%
Pepper Martin10.5 0.1%
Kid Nichols10.5 1.5%
Deacon Phillippe10.5 0.3%
Muddy Ruel10.5-
Jimmy Sheckard10.5 0.1%
Al Simmons10.5-
Billy Southworth10.5 0.1%
Tully Sparks10.5-
Billy Sullivan10.5-
Jesse Tannehill10.5 0.1%
Fred Tenney10.5-

Players who were elected in future elections. These individuals are also indicated in plain italics.

Final ballot

The 21 final candidates were listed on the ballot in alphabetical order, as their vote totals in the first round had not been revealed. Because no more than five selections were desired at this time, voters were restricted to voting for their top five choices; this, of course, did not allow for the fact that candidates were less likely to be among a voter's top five choices than they were to be among his top ten, thus making any selections less probable than they otherwise might have been. A total of 263 ballots were cast, with 1318 individual votes for the 21 candidates; 198 votes were required for election. The results were announced on January 23, 1946.
For the second year in a row, no candidate gained the necessary number of votes, with none even coming within 40 of the required total. As might have been mathematically projected, every candidate got a lower percentage of the vote than they had received on the nomination ballot. As a result of the restriction to five choices, only four candidates received even half the necessary votes for election. Again, an emphasis on the earliest candidates was evident; the top six candidates were all retired by 1917, while the bottom four were all active in 1934 or later, with the eleven candidates who were retired over 23 years receiving 65% of the vote.
The continuing inability to elect anyone created an even greater clamor for radical revision of the selection method. Some suggested that perhaps a lower threshold than 75% was advisable; others proposed that the final ballot should include only ten names, with voters choosing the top five. The Hall of Fame Committee, meeting in April and again in December, found it necessary to again overhaul the election method.
All of the candidates on the ballot were elected by 1955, with the exception of manager Miller Huggins, who was elected in 1964.
PlayerVotesPercentChange
Frank Chance15057.0 14.3%
Johnny Evers11041.8 22.6%
Miller Huggins10640.3 23.6%
Ed Walsh10640.3 16.6%
Rube Waddell8733.1 27.3%
Clark Griffith8231.2 4.9%
Carl Hubbell7528.5 21.5%
Frankie Frisch6725.5 26.0%
Mickey Cochrane6524.7 14.9%
Lefty Grove6123.2 11.9%
Pie Traynor5320.2 12.0%
Mordecai Brown4818.3 9.4%
Joe McGinnity4717.9 8.3%
Dizzy Dean4517.1 2.7%
Joe Tinker4517.1 10.1%
Frank Baker3613.7 5.6%
Chief Bender3513.3 6.0%
Bill Dickey3212.2 7.6%
Rabbit Maranville2911.0 13.8%
Charlie Gehringer238.7 12.6%
Herb Pennock166.1 14.2%

Old-Timers Committee

After its 1945 selections, the committee had intended to review the pitchers from the pre-1910 era and to also re-focus on the earlier 19th century players; but after the BBWAA had failed to select any inductees for the second year in a row, and with only one player chosen by the BBWAA since 1939, it was generally accepted that a dramatic revision of the election process by the Hall of Fame Committee was necessary. The committee firmly agreed that any flaws in the rules were causing errors of omission rather than ones of liberality in selections, and that the wide field of candidates from the entire 20th century was making it unlikely that any candidate could draw 75% of the vote from the BBWAA.
The committee members were: Hall of Fame president Stephen C. Clark, who chaired the committee; Hall of Fame treasurer Paul S. Kerr, the committee secretary; former Yankees president Ed Barrow; Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack; former Braves president Bob Quinn; and Boston sportswriter Mel Webb. New York sportswriter Harry Cross, who had been named in February to fill the vacancy created by the death of Sid Mercer, also died, on April 4. On April 23, the members of the committee met in New York City to consider their selections and to make further revisions in the election process. In May, Grantland Rice was named to fill the vacancy on the committee, and another major revision in the BBWAA voting process was enacted at their meeting in December.

Selections

The committee determined that the candidates from the early part of the century were gaining the most support, but would likely never reach the necessary threshold of 75% because many younger writers were reluctant to vote for players about whom they had limited first-hand knowledge. In 1945 the committee had believed that only a handful of those early candidates whose careers bridged the turn of the century needed to be removed from BBWAA consideration in order to facilitate elections; they were now more certain that they needed to select players whose careers began after 1900, and extended through the 1910s, in order to break the deadlock in the BBWAA voting. There was even some support on the committee from eliminating the BBWAA from the process entirely, due to their inability for several years to agree on appropriate inductees.
The committee selected 11 inductees – five of whom were still living – including the first two left-handed pitchers to reach the Hall. They were formally inducted on July 21, 1947, with National League president Ford Frick officiating; however, of the four still living at that time, only Ed Walsh attended the ceremonies:
The committee had followed up on its intent to review most of the popular pitching candidates of the era, but took no further action on the candidacies, proposed one year earlier, of Abner Doubleday and Franklin Roosevelt. They also took no action on additional stars such as Jim "Deacon" White from the era before 1890, an area in which selections had continually been postponed.

Honor Rolls of Baseball

The Hall of Fame Committee also announced the creation of the Honor Rolls of Baseball, which would be displayed at the museum, featuring the names of significant non-players in four areas. This second-tier list consisted of five managers, 11 umpires, 11 executives and 12 sportswriters. These contributors were not designated as official Hall of Fame members, so plaques on the wall were not authorized, as they were reserved only for those outstanding players, along with certain pioneers of the game.
The Honor Roll recognition was not meant to be a final destination for the selected writers, umpires, managers, and executives. The committee was clear that any of the men named to the Honor Rolls would be eligible for full admission into the Hall in the future, and eight of the 39 were later selected and inducted. Of the 39 honorees, eight were still living: Barrow, Carrigan, Connolly, Dinneen, Evans, Heydler, Klem, and Quinn.

Criticism and rationale

Whereas the committee's 1945 selections met with criticism only in later years, complaints regarding their moves in 1946 began more immediately. The committee had not yet outlined the revised voting rules for BBWAA elections, and many observers felt that the BBWAA's privilege of selecting 20th century players was being infringed. It was widely suggested that the committee should either reform the BBWAA's voting rules or eliminate the writers entirely from the process; it was also noted that there was still plenty of work for the committee in selecting further 19th century inductees. Criticism was also directed at the Roll of Honor, which had been created by the committee without any popular request; many felt that the Roll was a backhanded, secondary honor for individuals who had perhaps earned full membership in the Hall, and that the committee had simply established it as an excuse for inaction regarding non-playing candidates. It was further noted that managers, executives, sportswriters and pioneers were already included among the Hall's members, indicating that it had not been intended as an honor solely for players. Probably as a result of this criticism, there were never any additions to the Roll of Honor.
Specific, individual criticism regarding the 11 inductees selected by the committee was not as immediate, although the choices included some which have come to be met with greater disapproval than any of the 1945 choices; McCarthy has been described as the worst player in the Hall of Fame. Again, it is reasonably clear to discern the several factors which the committee likely found most important in making their selections in both 1945 and 1946:
  1. The committee's primary focus in both years was dealing with the failure of two consecutive BBWAA elections. In helping to ease the BBWAA's task, they initially intended only to select popular candidates whose peak years were before 1905; but they later decided that clearing the BBWAA logjam would require that they forgo their earlier limitation to the 19th century, and cover the entire period before 1920. As a result, almost all of their 21 selections over the two years played in the 25-year period between 1893 and 1917; all of their selections were active players in 1893 or later, with 11 playing their entire careers within that span. Only 4 enjoyed their peak years before 1893, including 3 selected in 1945: Dan Brouthers, Mike "King" Kelly, Jim O'Rourke, and the newly added Tommy McCarthy. Fully 17 were active after 1900, and 7 were active after 1910.
  2. The committee was selecting the most popular candidates from the BBWAA voting; had they instead selected players who received scant support from the BBWAA, they would have been far more heavily criticized for overriding the writers' judgment. With their selections over two years, they had chosen 15 of the 18 candidates who had retired by 1920 and who had received at least 10% of the vote in either year's election; every non-pitcher retired before 1920 who had ever received over 10% of the BBWAA vote had now been elected to the Hall or named to the Roll of Honor. Jesse Burkett, also elected, was the only player retired before 1910 who received more than 1 vote in the 1946 election. 4 of the committee's other selections had retired before 1900 and were not eligible for BBWAA consideration. The BBWAA members who supported the selection of these inductees are more appropriate targets for criticism than the Old-Timers Committee, which was essentially confirming their votes; the committee elected the same candidates the BBWAA had been trying to elect.
  3. Throughout this period, most voters and media observers supported the idea of choosing players who had remained in the sport as managers, coaches or executives after retiring. A majority of the selections were major league managers at some point, with eight leading their teams to pennants. Five of the inductees each served at least five seasons as coaches in the major leagues; Burkett and Hugh Duffy worked as scouts for several years. Every retired manager with over 1000 victories had now been either elected to the Hall or placed in the Roll of Honor. Here follow the names of the 21 managers who had won over 750 major league games prior to 1946, only 3 of whom were retired but had not yet received either recognition; those who had been selected by 1946 are shown in italics:
  4. #Connie Mack – 3387
  5. #John McGraw – 2763
  6. #Joe McCarthy – 1880
  7. #Bill McKechnie – 1832
  8. #Fred Clarke – 1602
  9. #Bucky Harris – 1456
  10. #Clark Griffith – 1491
  11. #Miller Huggins – 1413
  12. #Wilbert Robinson – 1399
  13. #Ned Hanlon – 1313
  14. #Cap Anson – 1292
  15. #Frank Selee – 1284
  16. #Hughie Jennings – 1184
  17. #Joe Cronin – 1049
  18. #Harry Wright – 1000
  19. #Frank Chance – 946
  20. #Frankie Frisch – 935
  21. #Jimmy Dykes – 889
  22. #George Stallings – 879
  23. #Charles Comiskey – 839
  24. #Bill Terry – 823
  25. The committee had elected players at positions which were not yet represented in the Hall. By 1945, the BBWAA had elected 20th century players at every position except catcher, third base and left field; these omissions were corrected through the elections of Roger Bresnahan, Jimmy Collins, and Fred Clarke respectively. The 1946 selections of Eddie Plank and Rube Waddell corrected the absence of any left-handed pitchers.
  26. There was a strong emphasis on those who had played central roles on championship teams, particularly the 3-time champion Baltimore Orioles of 1894-95-96, and the powerhouse Chicago Cubs teams which won 4 pennants between 1906 and 1910. 16 of the 21 inductees had been regulars on a world championship team; all except Burkett and Ed Delahanty had played for a pennant winner. Of the 21 selections, 15 had been a starting player, manager or owner for at least three pennant winners.
  27. The committee evidently chose to include players who had accomplished noteworthy feats in single seasons, particularly establishing single-season records, and winning multiple batting titles.
  28. The committee included groups of players who were closely associated with one another in baseball lore, such as Chicago's infield combination of Tinker, Evers and Chance, and Boston's "Heavenly Twins" outfield in the early 1890s of Duffy and McCarthy.