2015 Hall of Fame ‘Golden Era’ candidates announced
The Baseball Hall of Fame announced the following news on October 30, 2014:
The nine players on the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Golden Era Committee ballot for 2015 totaled three Most Valuable Player Awards, an average of more than six All-Star Game selections per player and seven World Series titles.
And the 10th member of the ballot? Well, all he did was assemble the great Cardinals teams of the 1960s and the Big Red Machine of the 1970s.
The 10-person ballot for consideration by this year’s Golden Era Committee — featuring candidates whose main contribution to the National Pastime came between 1947 and 1972 — consists of Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Bob Howsam, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Billy Pierce, Luis Tiant and Maury Wills.
Kaat (10 votes in 2011), Hodges (9 votes), Minoso (9 votes), Oliva (8 votes), Boyer (less than 3 votes) and Tiant (less than three votes) return to the ballot after appearing in the fall in 2011 in the first vote of the Golden Era Committee. Allen, Howsam, Pierce and Wills will be considered by the Golden Era Committee for the first time.
The 16-person Golden Era Committee consists of SABR members Pat Gillick, Roland Hemond, Steve Hirdt, and Tracy Ringolsby, along with Hall of Famers Jim Bunning, Rod Carew, Ferguson Jenkins, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, Ozzie Smith and Don Sutton; baseball executives Jim Frey, David Glass, and Bob Watson; and veteran media members Dick Kaegel and Phil Pepe.
Any candidate receiving votes on 75 percent of all ballots cast will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2015 on July 26.
For candidate bios and more information, visit BaseballHall.org.
Originally published: October 31, 2014. Last Updated: October 31, 2014.