Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1977

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1977 followed the system in place since 1971. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected Ernie Banks. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It selected three people: Al Lopez, Amos Rusie, and Joe Sewell. The Negro Leagues Committee also met in person and selected two players, Martín Dihigo and John Henry Lloyd.

The Negro Leagues Committee also determined to disband. It had elected nine players in seven years.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1957 or later, but not after 1971; the ballot included candidates from the 1976 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 1971. 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 34 players; a total of 383 ballots were cast, with 288 votes required for election. A total of 2,929 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.65 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.

Pee Wee Reese, George Kell and Walker Cooper 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 1978 ballot.
	Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

Player	Votes	Percent
†Ernie Banks	321	83.8
Eddie Mathews	239	62.4
Gil Hodges	224	58.5
Enos Slaughter	222	58.0
Duke Snider	212	55.4
Don Drysdale	197	51.4
Pee Wee Reese	163	42.6
Nellie Fox	152	39.7
†Jim Bunning	146	38.1
George Kell	141	36.8
Richie Ashburn	139	36.3
Red Schoendienst	105	27.4
Lew Burdette	85	22.2
Roger Maris	72	18.8
Alvin Dark	66	17.2
†Harvey Kuenn	57	14.9
Ted Kluszewski	55	14.4
Mickey Vernon	52	13.6
Walker Cooper	45	11.7
Elston Howard	43	11.2
Don Newcombe	43	11.2
Don Larsen	39	10.2
Roy Face	33	8.6
†Curt Flood	16	4.2
Ken Boyer	14	3.7
Bobby Thomson	10	2.6
Del Crandall	8	2.1
Harvey Haddix	7	1.8
Vern Law	5	1.3
Dick Groat	4	1.0
Vic Wertz	4	1.0
Will White	4	1.0
†Camilo Pascual	3	0.8
Johnny Podres	3	0.8

Harvey Kuenn, whose last game played was in 1966, was actually activated by the Brewers for the last two weeks of 1971, in order for him to qualify for pension purposes. He did not play in an actual game, however.

The newly-eligible players included 13 All-Stars, 8 of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 50 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 11-time All-Star Ernie Banks, 8-time All-Star Harvey Kuenn, and 7-time All-Stars Jim Bunning and Camilo Pascual. The field included two MVPs (Banks, who won twice, and Zoilo Versalles), one Cy Young Award winner (Dean Chance) and one Rookie of the Year (Kuenn).

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Bob Aspromonte, Clete Boyer, George Brunet, Dean Chance, Ty Cline, Clay Dalrymple, Dick Ellsworth, Jake Gibbs, Tony González, Mudcat Grant, Dick Hall, Jim Hannan, Mike Hershberger, Chuck Hinton, Mack Jones, Cal Koonce, Jim Maloney, Lee Maye, Mike McCormick, Don Pavletich, Claude Raymond, Howie Reed, Ducky Schofield, Al Spangler, George Thomas, Zoilo Versalles, and Al Weis.

External links

1977 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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