1986 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting


Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1986 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 Willie McCovey. 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 two players, Bobby Doerr and Ernie Lombardi. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 3, 1986, with Commissioner of Baseball Peter Ueberroth, and former Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Happy Chandler, in attendance.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1966 or later, but not after 1980; the ballot included candidates from the 1985 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 1980. 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 41 players; a total of 425 ballots were cast, with 319 votes required for election. A total of 2,992 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.04 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 17 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk.
PlayerVotesPercentChangeYear
†Willie McCovey34681.4-1st
Billy Williams31574.1 10.3%5th
Catfish Hunter28968.0 14.3%2nd
Jim Bunning27965.6 13.8%10th
Roger Maris17741.6 9.2%13th
Tony Oliva15436.2 7.3%5th
Orlando Cepeda15235.8 6.9%7th
Harvey Kuenn14433.9 2.3%10th
Maury Wills12429.2 5.7%9th
Bill Mazeroski10023.5 1.5%9th
Lew Burdette9622.6 1.8%14th
Ken Boyer9522.4 5.2%7th
†Minnie Miñoso8920.9-2nd
Mickey Lolich8620.2 0.5%2nd
Roy Face7417.4 1.7%11th
Ron Santo6415.1 1.7%3rd
Joe Torre6014.1 3.0%4th
Elston Howard5112.0 1.7%13th
Curt Flood4510.6 3.5%5th
Vada Pinson4310.1 5.3%5th
Dick Allen419.6 2.5%4th
Thurman Munson358.2 0.1%6th
Don Larsen337.8 0.3%13th
Wilbur Wood235.4 1.3%3rd
†Tim McCarver*163.8-1st
Dave McNally*122.8 1.0%4th
†John Hiller*112.6-1st
†Paul Blair*81.9-1st
†J. R. Richard*71.6-1st
Ken Holtzman*51.2-2nd
†Willie Horton*40.9-1st
Jim Lonborg*30.7 0.1%2nd
Andy Messersmith*30.7 0.1%2nd
†Dave Cash*20.5-1st
†Manny Sanguillén*20.5-1st
†Jack Billingham*10.2-1st
†José Cardenal*10.2-1st
†Bud Harrelson*10.2-1st
George Scott*10.2 0.2%2nd
†Vic Davalillo*00.0-1st
†Darold Knowles*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 1987 ballot.
Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

The newly-eligible players included 15 All-Stars, two of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 36 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 7-time All-Star Minnie Miñoso, who was re-eligible due to two at-bats in 1980, and 6-time All Star Willie McCovey. The field included one MVP, and two Rookies of the Year.
Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Bill Bonham, Pedro Borbón, Bernie Carbo, Ralph Garr, Ken Henderson, Von Joshua, Fred Kendall, Lerrin LaGrow, Skip Lockwood, Elliott Maddox, Roger Metzger, Fred Norman, Marty Pattin, Dave Rader, Merv Rettenmund, Jim Rooker, Ted Sizemore and Bob Stinson.