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.

BBWAA election

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.

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 1974 ballot.
	Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.
†	First time on the BBWAA ballot.

Player	Votes	Percent
†Warren Spahn	316	83.2
†Whitey Ford	255	67.1
Ralph Kiner	235	61.8
Gil Hodges	218	57.4
†Robin Roberts	213	56.1
Bob Lemon	177	46.6
Johnny Mize	157	41.3
Enos Slaughter	145	38.2
Marty Marion	127	33.4
Pee Wee Reese	126	33.2
George Kell	114	30.0
Phil Rizzuto	111	29.2
Duke Snider	101	26.6
Red Schoendienst	96	25.3
Allie Reynolds	93	24.5
Hal Newhouser	79	20.8
Phil Cavarretta	73	19.2
Nellie Fox	73	19.2
Alvin Dark	53	13.9
Johnny Sain	47	12.4
Dom DiMaggio	43	11.3
Richie Ashburn	25	6.6
Mickey Vernon	23	6.1
Ted Kluszewski	14	3.7
†Lew Burdette	12	3.2
Don Newcombe	11	2.9
†Vern Law	9	2.4
Walker Cooper	8	2.1
†Dick Groat	7	1.8
Vic Raschi	7	1.8
Dutch Leonard	6	1.6
Roy McMillan	5	1.3
Bobby Shantz	5	1.3
†Curt Simmons	5	1.3
Carl Erskine	4	1.1
Billy Pierce	4	1.1
Harry Brecheen	3	0.8
Bobby Thomson	3	0.8
Gil McDougald	2	0.5
Bobby Richardson	2	0.5
Vic Wertz	2	0.5
†Smoky Burgess	1	0.3
Harvey Haddix	1	0.3

The newly-eligible players included 24 All-Stars, 16 of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 95 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 17-time All-Star Warren Spahn, 10-time All-Star Whitey Ford, 9-time All-Star Smoky Burgess, 8-time All-Star Dick Groat and Bill Skowron, 7-time All-Star Robin Roberts and 5-time All-Star Earl Battey.

On March 20, the BBWAA held a special election for Roberto Clemente, who had died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972. Clemente was elected after receiving 393 votes out of 420 ballots cast.

External links

1973 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org

Balloting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame

1930s–1940s	1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

1950s–1960s	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

1970s–1980s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990s–2000s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

List of members of the Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee Baseball Writers' Association of America

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