1985 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

1985 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

New inductees	4
via BBWAA	2
via Veterans Committee	2
Total inductees	193
Induction date	July 28, 1985

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1985 followed the system in place since 1978. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected two, Lou Brock and Hoyt Wilhelm. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider older major league players as well as managers, umpires, executives, and figures from the Negro leagues. It also selected two players, Enos Slaughter and Arky Vaughan. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on July 28, 1985, with broadcaster Brent Musburger handling introductions and Commissioner of Baseball Peter Ueberroth in attendance.^[1]

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1965 or later, but not after 1979; the ballot included candidates from the 1984 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 1979. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.

Eleven players, who had previously been dropped from the ballot, were re-listed, following review and approval from a committee of six writers. Added were: Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Clay Carroll, Ron Fairly, Curt Flood, Harvey Haddix, Denny McLain, Dave McNally, Vada Pinson, Ron Santo, and Wilbur Wood.^[2] Ultimately, none of the 11 were elected by the BBWAA. Santo was elected to the Hall by the Golden Era Committee in 2012 balloting and Allen was elected to the Hall by the Classic Baseball Committee in 2025 balloting

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 41 players; a total of 395 ballots were cast, with 297 votes required for election. A total of 2,918 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.39 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 dagger (†). The two candidates who received at least 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. The 18 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Nellie Fox was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.

Player Votes Percent Change Year Hoyt Wilhelm 331 83.8 0 11.8% 8th †Lou Brock 315 79.7 - 1st Nellie Fox 295 74.7 0 13.7% 15th Billy Williams 252 63.8 0 13.7% 4th Jim Bunning 214 54.2 0 4.3% 9th †Catfish Hunter 212 53.7 - 1st Roger Maris 128 32.4 0 5.8% 12th Harvey Kuenn 125 31.6 0 5.3% 9th Orlando Cepeda 114 28.9 0 1.9% 6th Tony Oliva 114 28.9 0 1.9% 4th Maury Wills 93 23.5 0 2.3% 8th Bill Mazeroski 87 22.0 0 3.6% 8th Lew Burdette 82 20.8 0 3.3% 13th †Mickey Lolich 78 19.7 - 1st Ken Boyer 68 17.2 - 6th Roy Face 62 15.7 0 0.4% 10th Elston Howard 54 13.7 0 2.5% 12th Ron Santo 53 13.4 - 2nd Joe Torre 44 11.1 0 0.1% 3rd Don Larsen 32 8.1 0 1.9% 12th Thurman Munson 32 8.1 0 0.9% 5th Dick Allen 28 7.1 - 2nd Curt Flood 28 7.1 - 4th Vada Pinson* 19 4.8 - 4th Wilbur Wood* 16 4.1 0 0.6% 2nd Harvey Haddix* 15 3.8 - 10th Dave McNally* 7 1.8 - 3rd †Ken Holtzman* 4 1.0 - 1st Ron Fairly* 3 0.8 0 0.8% 2nd †Jim Lonborg* 3 0.8 - 1st †Andy Messersmith* 3 0.8 - 1st †Don Kessinger* 2 0.5 - 1st Denny McLain* 2 0.5 - 3rd †Jesús Alou* 1 0.3 - 1st †Rico Carty* 1 0.3 - 1st †Dock Ellis* 1 0.3 - 1st Clay Carroll* 0 0.0 0 0.2% 2nd †Ed Kranepool* 0 0.0 - 1st †George Scott* 0 0.0 - 1st †Bobby Tolan* 0 0.0 - 1st †Roy White* 0 0.0 - 1st

Key to colors      Elected to the Hall. These individuals are also indicated in bold italics.      Players who were elected in future elections. These individuals are also indicated in plain italics.      Players not yet elected who returned on the 1986 ballot.      Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration. 1985 BBWAA inductees Lou Brock (left) and Hoyt Wilhelm 1985 Veterans Committee inductees Enos Slaughter (left) and Arky Vaughan

Thurman Munson, who died in a plane crash in 1979, would have been eligible for the first time, but the five-year waiting period was waived.

The newly eligible players included 16 All-Stars, two of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 44 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 8-time All-Star Catfish Hunter,.and 6-time All-Stars Lou Brock and Don Kessinger. The field included two Cy Young Award-winners (Catfish Hunter and Jim Lonborg), as well as George Scott, whose eight Gold Gloves at first base were a record at the time.

Players eligible for the first time who were not on the ballot were: Darrel Chaney, Gene Clines, Joe Coleman, Willie Davis, Frank Duffy, Ray Fosse, Ellie Hendricks, Steve Mingori, Bob Montgomery, Tom Murphy, Bob Robertson, Wayne Twitchell, and Bobby Valentine.

J. G. Taylor Spink Award

Joe McGuff (1926–2006) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer.^[3] The award was voted at the December 1984 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1985 ceremonies.

References

1. Holtzman, Jerome (July 29, 1985). "Baseball looks back—and ahead". Chicago Tribune. p. 2-1. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
2. Broeg, Bob (December 2, 1984). "Boyer's Name Returns To Hall Of Fame Ballot". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 5E. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
3. "1984 BBWAA Career Excellence Award Winner Joe McGuff".

External links

• 1985 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org