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Baseball Hall Of Fame Balloting, 1938




In the BBWAA election, 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 upon its opening in the sport's supposed centennial year of 1939 . Individuals who had been barred from baseball, though not formally ineligible, no longer received even the minimal support given them in the two prior elections.


THE BBWAA VOTE


A total of 262 ballots were cast, with 2474 individual votes for 119 specific candidates; 197 votes were required for election. The balloting was dominated by players of the 1900s and 1910s, rather than those of the more recent two decades; the results were announced in January 1938. The sole candidate who received at least 75% of the vote and was elected is indicated in ''bold italics''; candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in ''italics'':



THE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION


Once again, the Hall opted to have this small committee of Six Members select inductees "for outstanding service to base ball apart from playing the game." After selecting five individuals in 1937, the Commission chose two inductees at the major league winter meetings in New York City in December 1938, though the choices were not announced until the following month:

  • Alexander Cartwright , who had been instrumental in organizing some of the game's first teams in the 1840s and had moved to establish the game's first consistent playing rules; and

  • Henry Chadwick , a sportswriter who had tirelessly promoted the game in the late 19th century and had been a major force in revision of the rules through several decades.