SABR Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends

Chris Von der Ahe (SABR-Rucker Archive)Each year, SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee selects its Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend — a 19th century player, manager, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

  • 2025 finalists: Earlier this year, committee members selected the 16 finalists for the 2025 Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend. Click here to view the finalists’ bios, compiled by project co-chairs Adam Darowski and Joe Williams. Voting in the final election will run until June 2, and will be open to all SABR members.
  • Vote now! Click here to access the 2025 ballot. All SABR members are eligible to vote in the election for this year’s Overlooked 19th Century Legend. You *MUST* select five candidates — ranking them from first choice to fifth choice — from among the candidates presented. You are only allowed to vote once. ALL BALLOTS MUST BE CAST PRIOR TO 11:59 p.m. PDT on Monday, June 2, 2025.

All SABR members are eligible to cast a vote for the winner. The winners are announced at the Nineteenth Century Committee’s annual meeting at the SABR convention.

The Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee, which votes on eligible candidates for induction whose greatest contributions to the game were realized prior to 1980, is next scheduled to vote in December 2027.

Here are the previous Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends:

To receive e-mail announcements on the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends Project and other committee announcements, click the “Join Group” button here.

For more information on the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends Project, contact project co-chairs Adam Darowski or Joe Williams, or visit the project’s Facebook page.

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