Any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. Votes were cast for 53 players; a total of 252 ballots were cast, with 189 votes required for election. A total of 2,091 individual votes were cast, an average of 8.30 per ballot.
The three candidates who received 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics.
Players were eligible if they had finished their career between 1928 and 1952. Starting with this election, players had to have been retired from baseball (including no longer working as a manager) for a minimum of five seasons to be eligible, unless they had received at least 100 votes in the prior year's election—those who qualified under this clause were Joe DiMaggio and Ted Lyons.[2]