Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1967

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1967 followed rules in transition. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) held its first election in any odd-number year since 1955 and its last election with provision for a runoff in case of no winner. (In June the rules were rewritten to restore a single annual vote permanently.) In the event, the BBWAA voted twice by mail and elected Red Ruffing on the second ballot. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It selected two people, Branch Rickey and Lloyd Waner.

BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1947 or later, but not after 1961; the ballot included selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1961. 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 47 players; a total of 292 ballots were cast, with 219 votes required for election. A total of 2,321 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.95 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.

No one reached the threshold so there was a runoff election featuring the 31 leading candidates (thirty including a tie). There would be one winner regardless of numerical support on the second ballot; in fact, winner Red Ruffing tallied 266 of 306 votes or 87%. A total of 1,198 individual votes were cast in the run-off, an average of 4.10 per ballot.

Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a †. Candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. (Al López, line seven, is in the Hall of Fame, too, but as a manager.) The 20 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.

Red Ruffing, Al López, Billy Herman, Mel Harder and Ernie Lombardi were on the ballot for the final time because they last played in 1947.

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 1968 ballot.
     Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remained eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.
Player Vote Percent Runoff
Joe Medwick 212 72.6 248
Red Ruffing 212 72.6 266
Roy Campanella 204 69.9 170
Lou Boudreau 143 49.0 68
Ralph Kiner 124 42.5 41
Enos Slaughter 123 42.1 48
Al López 114 39.0 50
Marty Marion 90 30.8 22
Johnny Mize 89 30.5 14
Pee Wee Reese 89 30.5 16
Johnny Vander Meer 87 29.8 35
Allie Reynolds 77 26.4 19
Phil Rizzuto 71 24.3 14
Joe Gordon 66 22.6 13
Bucky Walters 65 22.3 24
Hal Newhouser 62 21.2 13
Billy Herman 59 20.2 14
Mel Harder 52 17.8 14
Arky Vaughan 46 15.8 19
Ernie Lombardi 43 14.7 25
George Kell 40 13.7 11
Alvin Dark 38 13.0 7
Bobby Doerr 35 12.0 15
Bob Lemon 35 12.0 7
†Hank Bauer 23 7.9 9
Bobo Newsom 19 6.5 6
Don Newcombe 18 6.2 2
Phil Cavarretta 15 5.1 4
Mickey Vernon* 14 4.8 2
Larry Doby* 10 3.4 1
Bobby Thomson* 10 3.4 1
†Ted Kluszewski* 9 3.1
Gil McDougald* 4 1.4
†Jackie Jensen* 3 1.0
Terry Moore* 3 1.0
Del Ennis* 2 0.7
Carl Furillo* 2 0.7
Jim Hegan* 2 0.7
†Earl Torgeson* 2 0.7
†Elmer Valo* 2 0.7
†Clint Courtney* 1 0.3
†Walt Dropo* 1 0.3
†Ned Garver* 1 0.3
Grady Hatton* 1 0.3
Jim Hearn* 1 0.3
†Billy Martin* 1 0.3
Andy Pafko* 1 0.3

The results show that voters in the second election concentrated their support on the three leaders.

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