Brisbee: A short history of the other no-inductee Hall of Fame ballots by the BBWAA
From Grant Brisbee at Baseball Nation on January 9, 2013:
Fast forward to Cooperstown in July. One man with a sno-cone stand, syrup dripping down his outstretched hand like a blue tear. A family huddling together, wishing they had brought a blanket. The great-grandson of Deacon White, playing harmonica on state. A cold wind blows. A wolf howls.
Alright, maybe it’s not quite that dramatic. But it is kind of a big deal, the Baseball Writers Association of America not inducting a player into the Hall of Fame. You’ll hear or read that this isn’t unprecedented, that it’s happened seven times before. And that’s true. But there is a big difference between the two eras of zero-inductee elections from the BBWAA. Here’s a quick look at the two different eras:
Overcrowded ballots and baseball writers are weird
This is the post-WWII era, when the writers didn’t induct anyone in five different elections. Those years, along with the number of eventual Hall of Famers on the ballots in those years:
1945 (56 eventual Hall of Famers)
1946 (46)
1950 (50)
1958 (42)
1960 (40)Loaded ballots, all of them. There are a lot of footnotes.
Read the full article here: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2013/1/9/3856312/hall-of-fame-no-inductees-2013
Originally published: January 9, 2013. Last Updated: January 9, 2013.