1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting


Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1983 followed the system in place since 1978.
The Baseball Writers' Association of America voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected two, Juan Marichal and Brooks Robinson. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider older major league players as well as managers, umpires, executives, and figures from the Negro Leagues. It selected Walter Alston and George Kell. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on July 31, 1983, with Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn presiding.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1963 or later, but not after 1977; the ballot included candidates from the 1982 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 1977. 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 46 players; a total of 374 ballots were cast, with 281 votes required for election. A total of 3,125 individual votes were cast, an average of 8.36 per ballot. 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 dagger. 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 23 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk.
Gil Hodges and Red Schoendienst were on the ballot for the 15th and final time. As of 2018, Hodges's 63.4% remains the highest percentage of any candidate who has not been elected to the Hall of Fame.
PlayerVotesPercentChangeYear
Brooks Robinson34492.0-1st
Juan Marichal31383.7 10.2%3rd
Harmon Killebrew26971.9 12.6%3rd
Luis Aparicio25267.4 25.5%5th
Hoyt Wilhelm24365.0 8.1%6th
Don Drysdale24264.7 8.6%9th
Gil Hodges23763.4 14.0%15th
Nellie Fox17346.3 15.7%13th
Billy Williams15340.9 17.5%2nd
Red Schoendienst14639.0 6.5%15th
Jim Bunning13836.9 3.6%7th
Harvey Kuenn7720.6 5.7%7th
Maury Wills7720.6 1.3%6th
Tony Oliva7520.1 4.9%2nd
Roger Maris6918.4 1.8%10th
Orlando Cepeda5915.8 5.7%4th
Bill Mazeroski4812.8 6.1%6th
Lew Burdette4311.5 1.1%11th
Roy Face328.6 3.3%8th
Elston Howard328.6 1.0%10th
Don Larsen225.9 1.8%10th
Joe Torre205.3-1st
Thurman Munson184.8 1.5%3rd
†Dick Allen*143.7-1st
Vada Pinson*123.2 1.8%3rd
Jim Perry*71.9-2nd
†Boog Powell*51.3-1st
†Ray Sadecki*20.5-1st
†Dave Giusti*10.3-1st
†Tommy Helms*10.3-1st
†Félix Millán*10.3-1st
†Mike Cuellar*00.0-1st
†Larry Dierker*00.0-1st
†Pat Dobson*00.0-1st
†Al Downing*00.0-1st
†Joe Hoerner*00.0-1st
†Randy Hundley*00.0-1st
†Carlos May*00.0-1st
†Ken McMullen*00.0-1st
†Bill Melton*00.0-1st
†Gary Nolan*00.0-1st
†Doug Rader*00.0-1st
†Cookie Rojas*00.0-1st
†Diego Seguí*00.0-1st
†Bill Singer*00.0-1st
†Jimmy Wynn*00.0-1st

Elected to the Hall. These individuals are also indicated in bold italics.
Players who were elected in future elections. These individuals are also indicated in plain italics.
Players not yet elected who returned on the 1984 ballot.
Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

The newly-eligible players included 22 All-Stars, three of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 68 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 15-time All-Star Brooks Robinson, 9-time All-Star Joe Torre, 7-time All-Star Dick Allen and 5-time All-Star Cookie Rojas. The field included four MVPs, one Cy Young Award-winner, and two Rookies of the Year. Brooks Robinson also had 16 Gold Gloves, the all-time record at third base.
Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Ken Boswell, Ollie Brown, Willie Crawford, Bruce Dal Canton, Tom Hall, Steve Hargan, Terry Harmon. Mike Hegan, Bob Heise, Jerry Johnson, Ed Kirkpatrick, George Mitterwald, Dave Nelson, Phil Roof, and Gary Ross.