Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1973

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1973 followed the system in place since 1971, except by adding the special election of Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash on New Year's Eve. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected Warren Spahn.

The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It selected three people: Billy Evans, George Kelly, and Mickey Welch. The Negro Leagues Committee also met in person and selected Monte Irvin.

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1953 or later, but not after 1967; the ballot included candidates from the 1972 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 1967. 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 43 players; a total of 380 ballots were cast, with 285 votes required for election. A total of 3,011 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.92 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 †. The one candidate who received at least 75% of the vote and was elected is indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics.

Johnny Mize, Marty Marion, Dom DiMaggio, Dutch Leonard and Harry Brecheen were on the ballot for the final time.

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