Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1948

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1948 followed the same procedures as 1947. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from players retired less than 25 years, with provision for a runoff in case of no winner. It elected two people on the first ballot, Herb Pennock and Pie Traynor.

Meanwhile, the Old Timers Committee, with jurisdiction over earlier players, met on no schedule and not this year. Criticism continued that earlier players, as well as managers and other non-playing candidates, were being overlooked.

The 10-year members of the BBWAA had the authority to select any players active in 1923 or later, provided they had been retired since 1946. Voters were instructed to cast votes for 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. If no candidate received votes on 75% of the ballots, the top 20 candidates would advance to a runoff election, with the vote totals from the first ballot not being revealed until the runoff was over.

A total of 121 ballots were cast - the lowest total for any BBWAA election - with 1,036 individual votes for 106 specific candidates, an average of 8.56 per ballot; 91 votes were required for election. The results were announced on February 27, 1948. The election was a success for the second year in a row following the most recent format change, with two more inductees to the Hall being selected; again, no runoff was necessary. Herb Pennock, who received the most votes and was elected, had died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage just weeks earlier on January 30; however, he had done increasingly well in previous elections, and many ballots had already been cast, making it unlikely that his election was primarily due to sentiment.

The number of players receiving votes (106) was a significant increase over the previous year's total of 39, and the highest number since the 1939 election. After the 1947 election in which voters had just a few weeks to select candidates following the disqualification of players retired over 25 years, voters in 1948 had a full year in which to look for candidates who had retired between 1923 and 1946, and a wide variety of new candidates drew votes. 80 of those named received votes on less than 5% of the ballots, with 36 receiving only a single vote; 45 players were named for the first time, although all had been eligible at some point in the past - for some, the 1936 election in which active players were eligible. All but 3 of the eligible candidates who received any votes in the 1947 election were again named in the voting.

...
Wikipedia