Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 2000

The 2000 elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame followed the same system in use since 1995. The BBWAA election continued to apply 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.

The induction ceremonies were held on July 23 in Cooperstown, with George Grande as emcee.

The BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1980 or later, but not after 1994; the ballot included candidates from the 1999 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 1994. 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. Results of the 2000 election by the BBWAA were announced on January 11, 2000. The ballot consisted of 30 players; 499 ballots were cast, with 375 votes required for election. A total of 2813 individual votes were cast, an average of 5.64 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote (25 votes) 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 two candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in "bold italics"; candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in "italics". The 13 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Players eligible for the first time who were "not" included on the ballot were: Larry Andersen, Daryl Boston, Sid Bream, Tom Brunansky, Storm Davis, Steve Farr, Mike Felder, Joe Hesketh, Jay Howell, Mike Jeffcoat, Tim Leary, Craig Lefferts, Kevin McReynolds, Bob Melvin, Edwin Núñez, Bob Ojeda, Junior Ortiz, Dan Pasqua, Gary Redus, and Harold Reynolds.

The Veterans Committee

The Veterans Committee, since 1995, had been authorized to select up to two players per year, and in addition up to one player from the late nineteenth century and up to one player from the Negro Leagues. Eligible candidates for the two-player allotment included those players whose careers began in or before 1945 who played at least ten seasons; those who received 100 BBWAA votes in a year between 1946 and 1991; and those who received BBWAA votes on at least 60% of ballots cast in any single year since 1992. Players on Major League Baseball's ineligible list or who received votes on less than 5% of ballots cast in any year in which they were on the BBWAA ballot were ineligible.

The Committee selected Sparky Anderson, Bid McPhee, and Turkey Stearnes.

J.G. Taylor Spink Award

Hal Lebovitz was elected the winner of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award.

Ford C. Frick Award

Marty Brennaman was elected the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award.

External links

* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=2000 2000 Election] at www.baseballhalloffame.org.