The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1969 or later, but not after 1983; the ballot included candidates from the 1988 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 1983. 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 41 players; a total of 447 ballots were cast, with 336 votes required for election. A total of 3,016 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.75 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote would not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but could 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 20 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk (*).
The newly eligible players included 16 All-Stars, three of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 71 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 18-time All-Star Carl Yastrzemski, 14-time All-Star Johnny Bench, 6-time All-Star Bert Campaneris and 5-time All-Stars Bobby Murcer and Gaylord Perry. The field included two Most Valuable Players (Bench, who won twice, and Yastrzemski), two Cy Young Award-winners (Ferguson Jenkins and Gaylord Perry, who won twice) and three Rookies of the Year (Bench, John Matlack and Bake McBride). The field also included some prominent Gold Glove winners: Jim Kaat, whose 16 at pitcher was the record until broken by Greg Maddux; Johnny Bench, whose 10 at catcher was the record until broken by Iván Rodríguez; and Carl Yastrzemski, who won seven as an outfielder.
Bob Hunter (1913–1993) and Ray Kelly (1914–1988) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring baseball writers.[2][3] The awards were voted at the December 1988 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1989 ceremonies.