Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1986

L-R: Willie McCovey, Bobby Doerr, and Ernie Lombardi were inducted in 1986.

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1986 followed the system in place since 1978. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected Willie McCovey. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider older major league players as well as managers, umpires, executives, and figures from the Negro Leagues. It also selected two players, Bobby Doerr and Ernie Lombardi.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1966 or later, but not after 1980; the ballot included candidates from the 1985 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 1980. 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 41 players; a total of 425 ballots were cast, with 319 votes required for election. A total of 2,992 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.04 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. The 17 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

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 1987 ballot.
	Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

Player	Votes	Percent
†Willie McCovey	346	81.4
Billy Williams	315	74.1
Catfish Hunter	289	68.0
Jim Bunning	279	65.6
Roger Maris	177	41.6
Tony Oliva	154	36.2
Orlando Cepeda	152	35.8
Harvey Kuenn	144	33.9
Maury Wills	124	29.2
Bill Mazeroski	100	23.5
Lew Burdette	96	22.6
Ken Boyer	95	22.4
†Minnie Miñoso	89	20.9
Mickey Lolich	86	20.2
Roy Face	74	17.4
Ron Santo	64	15.1
Joe Torre	60	14.1
Elston Howard	51	12.0
Curt Flood	45	10.6
Vada Pinson	43	10.1
Dick Allen	41	9.6
Thurman Munson	35	8.2
Don Larsen	33	7.8
Wilbur Wood	23	5.4
†Tim McCarver*	16	3.8
Dave McNally*	12	2.8
†John Hiller*	11	2.6
†Paul Blair*	8	1.9
†J. R. Richard*	7	1.6
Ken Holtzman*	5	1.2
†Willie Horton*	4	0.9
Jim Lonborg*	3	0.7
Andy Messersmith*	3	0.7
†Dave Cash*	2	0.5
†Manny Sanguillén*	2	0.5
†Jack Billingham*	1	0.2
†José Cardenal*	1	0.2
†Bud Harrelson*	1	0.2
George Scott*	1	0.2
†Vic Davalillo*	0	0.0
†Darold Knowles*	0	0.0

The newly-eligible players included 15 All-Stars, two of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 36 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 7-time All-Star Minnie Miñoso, who was re-eligible due to two at-bats in 1980, and 6-time All Star Willie McCovey. The field included one MVP (McCovey), and two Rookies of the Year (McCovey and Ted Sizemore).

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Bill Bonham, Pedro Borbón, Bernie Carbo, Ralph Garr, Ken Henderson, Von Joshua, Fred Kendall, Lerrin LaGrow, Skip Lockwood, Elliott Maddox, Roger Metzger, Fred Norman, Marty Pattin, Dave Rader, Merv Rettenmund, Jim Rooker, Ted Sizemore and Bob Stinson.

External links

• 1986 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org