2015 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

2015 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting
New inductees4
via BBWAA4
Total inductees310
Induction dateJuly 26, 2015
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Randy Johnson
Pedro Martínez
John Smoltz
Craig Biggio

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2015 proceeded according to rules most recently amended in 2014.[1] As in the past, the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from a ballot of recently retired players, with results announced on January 6, 2015. Randy Johnson, Pedro Martínez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio were elected to the Hall of Fame.[2] It was the first time since 1955 that the BBWAA elected four players in one year.[3]

The Golden Era Committee, one of three voting panels by era that replaced the more broadly defined Veterans Committee following an earlier rules change in July 2010, convened at Major League Baseball's winter meetings in San Diego on December 8, 2014, to select from a ballot of 10 retired players and non-playing personnel who made their greatest contributions to the sport between 1947 and 1972.[4][5] None of these candidates received enough votes to be elected.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were held on July 26 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York,[5] with new commissioner Rob Manfred presiding for the first time. On the day before the actual induction ceremony, the annual Hall of Fame Awards Presentation took place. At that event, two awards for media excellence were presented – the Hall's Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters and the BBWAA's J. G. Taylor Spink Award for writers. The other major Hall of Fame award, the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, was not scheduled to be presented again until 2017.[6] Among the other portions of the ceremonies was a presentation by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus honoring the service of baseball personnel in World War II; he also announced the naming of the littoral combat ship USS Cooperstown.

  1. ^ "BBWAA Election Rules". Baseball Hall of Fame.
  2. ^ Snyder, Matt (January 6, 2015). "Baseball Hall of Fame: Johnson, Martinez, Smoltz, Biggio elected". CBS Sports. Archived from the original on January 6, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  3. ^ "Johnson, Martinez elected into HOF". espn.go.com. January 6, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  4. ^ "Hall of Fame Board of Directors Restructures Procedures for Consideration of Managers, Umpires, Executives and Long-Retired Players" (Press release). National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. July 26, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Rules for Election for Managers, Umpires, Executives and Players for Golden Era Candidates to the National Baseball Hall of Fame". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on December 14, 2010. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  6. ^ "Awards: Buck O'Neil". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved January 11, 2014.