1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1971 featured a new committee on the Negro Leagues that met in February and selected Satchel Paige. The museum planned to honor Paige and those who would follow in a special permanent exhibit outside the Hall of Fame but controversy about the nature of the honor began at the event announcing his election, February 9, and continued until the induction ceremonies six months later. At the latter event Paige was inducted to the Hall of Fame itself, the same as the major league figures.

Otherwise the elections continued a system of annual elections in place since 1968. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected no one. The Veterans Committee met in closed-door sessions to select from executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It elected seven, the biggest year in its 1953 to 2001 history: Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Chick Hafey, Harry Hooper, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard, and George Weiss.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1951 or later, but not after 1965; the ballot included candidates from the 1970 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 1965. 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. The ballot consisted of 48 players; a total of 360 ballots were cast, with 270 votes required for election. A total of 2,681 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.45 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote 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 †. Candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics.

Johnny Vander Meer and Bobby Doerr were on the ballot for the final time.

Key to colors

	Players who were elected in future elections. These individuals are also indicated in plain italics.
	Players not yet elected who returned on the 1972 ballot.
	Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

Player	Votes	Percent
†Yogi Berra	242	67.2
Early Wynn	240	66.7
Ralph Kiner	212	58.9
Gil Hodges	180	50.0
Enos Slaughter	165	45.8
Johnny Mize	157	43.6
Pee Wee Reese	127	35.3
Marty Marion	123	34.2
Red Schoendienst	123	34.3
Allie Reynolds	110	30.6
George Kell	105	29.2
Johnny Vander Meer	98	27.2
Hal Newhouser	94	26.1
Phil Rizzuto	92	25.6
Bob Lemon	90	25.0
Duke Snider	89	24.7
Phil Cavarretta	83	23.1
Bobby Doerr	78	21.7
Alvin Dark	54	15.0
†Nellie Fox	39	10.8
Bobo Newsom	17	4.7
Dom DiMaggio	15	4.2
Charlie Keller	14	3.9
Mickey Vernon	12	3.3
Johnny Sain	11	3.1
Richie Ashburn	10	2.8
†Harvey Haddix	10	2.8
Ted Kluszewski	9	2.5
Don Newcombe	8	2.2
Harry Brecheen	7	1.9
Walker Cooper	7	1.9
Wally Moses	7	1.9
Billy Pierce	7	1.9
Carl Furillo	5	1.4
Bobby Shantz	5	1.4
Ed Lopat	4	1.1
Gil McDougald	4	1.1
†Roy Sievers	4	1.1
Bobby Thomson	4	1.1
Carl Erskine	3	0.8
Dutch Leonard	3	0.8
Preacher Roe	3	0.8
Jackie Jensen	2	0.6
†Wally Moon	2	0.6
†Vic Power	2	0.6
Vic Raschi	2	0.6
Vic Wertz	2	0.6
†Bill Bruton	1	0.3

The field of newly eligible players included 13 All Stars, 7 of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 70 All Star selections. The new class included 18-time All-Star Yogi Berra, 15-time All-Star Nellie Fox, 6-time All-Star Vic Power, and 5-time All-Stars Dick Donovan and Roy Sievers.

External links

• 1971 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org