Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 2003

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2003 proceeded in keeping with rules enacted in 2001. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) held an election to select from among recent players. The Veterans Committee held elections both for players who were active no later than 1981 and for non-players (managers, umpires and executives).

The induction ceremonies were held on July 27 in Cooperstown, with Commissioner Bud Selig presiding.

The BBWAA was again authorized to elect players active in 1983 or later, but not after 1997; the ballot included candidates from the 2002 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 1997. In addition, Darryl Kile was exempted from the five-season rule and included on the ballot, due to his unexpected death during the 2002 season. 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. Results of the 2003 election by the BBWAA were announced on January 7. The ballot consisted of 33 players; 496 ballots were cast, with 372 votes required for election. A total of 3272 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.60 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote (25 votes) 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 two candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The 13 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Jim Kaat was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.

The newly eligible candidates included 22 All-Stars, five of whom were not on the ballot, who were selected a total of 68 times. Ryne Sandberg was selected a total of ten times, while Eddie Murray (eight times), Lee Smith (seven), Fernando Valenzuela (six) and Tony Peña (five) were all selected at least five times. The field included four Rookies of the Year (Murray, Valenzuela, Vince Coleman and Todd Worrell), as well as one MVP (Sandberg) and two Cy Young Award winners (Valenzuela and Mark Davis). Fernando Valenzuela is the only player ever so far to win a Cy Young Award and a Rookie of the Year Award in the same season.

...
Wikipedia