Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1981

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The 1981 elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame followed the same system in use since 1968. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) held an election to select among recent players. The BBWAA election applied a 75% rule to all eligible players, while the Veterans Committee met in closed-door sessions to select from players ineligible for the BBWAA election, as well as managers and executives.

[edit] BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1961 or later, but not after 1975; the ballot included candidates from the 1980 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 1975. 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 39 players; a total of 401 ballots were cast, with 301 votes required for election. 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 were elected is indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The 17 candidates whoe received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Ted Kluszewski was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.

Player Votes Percent
Bob Gibson 337 84.0
Don Drysdale 243 60.6
Gil Hodges 241 60.
Harmon Killebrew 239 59.6
Hoyt Wilhelm 238 59.4
Juan Marichal 233 58.1
Nellie Fox 168 41.9
Red Schoendienst 166 41.4
Jim Bunning 164 40.9
Maury Wills 163 40.6
Richie Ashburn 142 35.4
Roger Maris 94 23.4
Harvey Kuenn 93 23.2
Elston Howard 83 20.7
Orlando Cepeda 77 19.2
Thurman Munson 62 15.5
Ted Kluszewski 56 14.0
Luis Aparicio 48 12.0
Lew Burdette 48 12.0
Bill Mazeroski 38 9.5
Don Larsen 33 8.2
Roy Face 23 5.7
Vada Pinson 18 4.5
Jim Perry* 6 1.5
Dave McNally 5 1.2
Claude Osteen 2 0.5
Glenn Beckert* 1 0.2
Gates Brown 1 0.2
Leo Cardenas 1 0.2
Lindy McDaniel 1 0.2
Jim Northrup 1 0.2
Sonny Siebert 1 0.2
Ken Berry* 0 0.0
Johnny Briggs 0 0.0
Bill Hands* 0 0.0
Bobby Locke* 0 0.0
Dal Maxvill* 0 0.0
Dick McAuliffe* 0 0.0
Sam McDowell* 0 0.0

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Ed Brinkman, Danny Cater, Tom Egan, Bob Locker, Tommy McCraw, Jim Merritt, Gene Michael, Orlando Pena, Paul Popovich, Eddie Watt, Walt Williams and Clyde Wright.

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