Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1967

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1967 followed rules in transition. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) held its first election in any odd-number year since 1955 and its last election with provision for a runoff in case of no winner. (In June the rules were rewritten to restore a single annual vote permanently.) In the event, the BBWAA voted twice by mail and elected Red Ruffing on the second ballot. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It selected two people, Branch Rickey and Lloyd Waner.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1947 or later, but not after 1961; the ballot included selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1961. 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 47 players; a total of 292 ballots were cast, with 219 votes required for election. A total of 2,321 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.95 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.

No one reached the threshold so there was a runoff election featuring the 31 leading candidates (thirty including a tie). There would be one winner regardless of numerical support on the second ballot; in fact, winner Red Ruffing tallied 266 of 306 votes or 87%. A total of 1,198 individual votes were cast in the run-off, an average of 4.10 per ballot.

Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a †. Candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. (Al Lopez, line seven, is in the Hall of Fame, too, but as a manager.) The 20 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Red Ruffing, Al Lopez, Billy Herman, Mel Harder and Ernie Lombardi were on the ballot for the final time because they last played in 1947.

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.
	Players not yet elected who returned on the 1968 ballot.
	Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remained eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

Player	Vote	Percent	Runoff
Joe Medwick	212	72.6	248
Red Ruffing	212	72.6	266
Roy Campanella	204	69.9	170
Lou Boudreau	143	49.0	68
Ralph Kiner	124	42.5	41
Enos Slaughter	123	42.1	48
Al Lopez	114	39.0	50
Marty Marion	90	30.8	22
Johnny Mize	89	30.5	14
Pee Wee Reese	89	30.5	16
Johnny Vander Meer	87	29.8	35
Allie Reynolds	77	26.4	19
Phil Rizzuto	71	24.3	14
Joe Gordon	66	22.6	13
Bucky Walters	65	22.3	24
Hal Newhouser	62	21.2	13
Billy Herman	59	20.2	14
Mel Harder	52	17.8	14
Arky Vaughan	46	15.8	19
Ernie Lombardi	43	14.7	25
George Kell	40	13.7	11
Alvin Dark	38	13.0	7
Bobby Doerr	35	12.0	15
Bob Lemon	35	12.0	7
†Hank Bauer	23	7.9	9
Bobo Newsom	19	6.5	6
Don Newcombe	18	6.2	2
Phil Cavarretta	15	5.1	4
Mickey Vernon*	14	4.8	2
Larry Doby*	10	3.4	1
Bobby Thomson*	10	3.4	1
†Ted Kluszewski*	9	3.1
Gil McDougald*	4	1.4
†Jackie Jensen*	3	1.0
Terry Moore*	3	1.0
Del Ennis*	2	0.7
Carl Furillo*	2	0.7
Jim Hegan*	2	0.7
†Earl Torgeson*	2	0.7
†Elmer Valo*	2	0.7
†Clint Courtney*	1	0.3
†Walt Dropo*	1	0.3
†Ned Garver*	1	0.3
Grady Hatton*	1	0.3
Jim Hearn*	1	0.3
†Billy Martin*	1	0.3
Andy Pafko*	1	0.3

The results show that voters in the second election concentrated their support on the three leaders.

External links

• 1967 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org
• 1967 Runoff Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org