Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1953

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1953 followed a radically new procedure. The institution appointed its Committee on Baseball Veterans, the famous "Veterans Committee", to meet in person and consider pioneers and executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. Committees in the 1930s and 1940s had chosen several pioneers and executives, but this was the first direction of anyone's attention to field personnel other than players, the managers and umpires.

The first Veterans Committee met in closed sessions and elected six people: Ed Barrow, Chief Bender, Tommy Connolly, Bill Klem, Bobby Wallace, and Harry Wright.

The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent players (no change) and elected two, Dizzy Dean and Al Simmons.

BBWAA election

The 10-year members of the BBWAA had the authority to select any players active in 1928 or later, provided they had not been active in 1952. 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. A total of 264 ballots were cast in the Baseball Writers Election, with 2,493 individual votes for 82 specific candidates, an average of 9.44 per ballot; 198 votes were required for election. The two candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; those candidates who were selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The rules at the time indicated that players were eligible if they had been out of baseball for at least one season, so this was Joe DiMaggio's first season of eligibility (he had retired after the 1951 season).

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.
Player Votes Percent
Dizzy Dean 209 79.2
Al Simmons 199 75.4
Bill Terry 191 72.3
Bill Dickey 179 67.8
Rabbit Maranville 164 62.1
Dazzy Vance 150 56.8
Ted Lyons 139 52.7
Joe DiMaggio 117 44.3
Chief Bender 104 34.9
Gabby Hartnett 104 34.9
Hank Greenberg 80 30.3
Joe Cronin 69 26.1
Casey Stengel 61 23.1
Hank Gowdy 58 22.0
Max Carey 55 20.8
Ray Schalk 52 19.7
Pepper Martin 43 16.3
Hack Wilson 43 16.3
Lefty Gomez 35 13.3
Edd Roush 32 12.1
Ross Youngs 31 11.7
Tony Lazzeri 28 10.6
Red Ruffing 24 9.1
Bucky Harris 21 8.0
Duffy Lewis 20 7.6
Rube Marquard 19 7.2
Kiki Cuyler 18 6.8
Babe Adams 17 6.4
Waite Hoyt 14 5.3
Dickie Kerr 13 4.9
Steve O'Neill 13 4.9
Lefty O'Doul 11 4.2
Dave Bancroft 10 3.8
Jim Bottomley 10 3.8
Tommy Henrich 10 3.8
Bucky Walters 10 3.8
Jimmy Wilson 10 3.8
Wilbur Cooper 9 3.4
Red Faber 9 3.4
Burleigh Grimes 9 3.4
Charlie Grimm 9 3.4
Mel Harder 8 3.0
Muddy Ruel 8 3.0
Jimmy Dykes 5 1.9
Red Rolfe 5 1.9
Everett Scott 5 1.9
Jesse Haines 4 1.5
Art Nehf 4 1.5
Cy Williams 4 1.5
Earle Combs 3 1.1
Howard Ehmke 3 1.1
Sam Rice 3 1.1
Eppa Rixey 3 1.1
Glenn Wright 3 1.1
Luke Appling 2 0.8
Bobby Doerr 2 0.8
Chick Hafey 2 0.8
Babe Herman 2 0.8
Travis Jackson 2 0.8
Al Lopez 2 0.8
Roger Peckinpaugh 2 0.8
Billy Southworth 2 0.8
Nick Altrock 1 0.4
Donie Bush 1 0.4
Mike González 1 0.4
Charlie Keller 1 0.4
Johnny Kling 1 0.4
Bill Lange 1 0.4
Dolf Luque 1 0.4
Joe McCarthy 1 0.4
Clyde Milan 1 0.4
Terry Moore 1 0.4
Charley O'Leary 1 0.4
Hub Pruett 1 0.4
Dave Robertson 1 0.4
Eddie Rommel 1 0.4
Germany Schaefer 1 0.4
George Selkirk 1 0.4
Bill Sherdel 1 0.4
Gabby Street 1 0.4
Arky Vaughan 1 0.4
Bill Wambsganss 1 0.4

Sources

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