Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1999 followed the system in use since 1995. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected three: George Brett, Nolan Ryan, and Robin Yount. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions and selected four people from multiple classified ballots: Orlando Cepeda, Nestor Chylak, Frank Selee, and Joe Williams.
Induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York, were held July 25 with George Grande as emcee.
The BBWAA election[]
The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1979 or later, but not after 1993; the ballot included candidates from the 1998 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 1993. 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. Results of the 1999 election by the BBWAA were announced on January 5, 1999. The ballot consisted of 29 players; 497 ballots were cast, with 373 votes required for election. A total of 3348 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.74 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote (25 votes) will not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.
The Class of 1999 included the most first-year inductees (three) since the inaugural class of 1936.
Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a †. The three candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The seven candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with a *.
Mickey Lolich and Minnie Miñoso were on the ballot for the 15th and final time, although Miñoso's years of eligibility were not consecutive.
| Player | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| †Nolan Ryan | 491 | 98.8 |
| †George Brett | 488 | 98.2 |
| †Robin Yount | 385 | 77.5 |
| †Carlton Fisk | 330 | 66.4 |
| Tony Pérez | 302 | 60.8 |
| Gary Carter | 168 | 33.8 |
| Steve Garvey | 150 | 30.2 |
| Jim Rice | 146 | 29.4 |
| Bruce Sutter | 121 | 24.3 |
| Jim Kaat | 100 | 20.1 |
| †Dale Murphy | 96 | 19.3 |
| Tommy John | 93 | 18.7 |
| Dave Parker | 80 | 16.1 |
| Minnie Miñoso | 73 | 14.7 |
| Bert Blyleven | 70 | 14.1 |
| Dave Concepción | 59 | 11.2 |
| Luis Tiant | 53 | 10.7 |
| Keith Hernandez | 34 | 6.8 |
| Ron Guidry | 31 | 6.2 |
| Bob Boone | 27 | 5.4 |
| Mickey Lolich | 26 | 5.2 |
| Dwight Evans* | 18 | 3.6 |
| †George Bell* | 6 | 1.2 |
| †John Candelaria* | 1 | 0.2 |
| †Mike Boddicker* | 0 | 0.0 |
| †Charlie Leibrandt* | 0 | 0.0 |
| †Frank Tanana* | 0 | 0.0 |
| †Mike Witt* | 0 | 0.0 |
The newly-eligible candidates included 19 All-Stars, including nine who were not on the ballot, representing a total of 63 All-Star selections. Among the candidates included 13-time All-Star George Brett, 11-time All-Star Carlton Fisk, 8-time All-Star Nolan Ryan and 7-time All-Star Dale Murphy. The field included four MVPs (Brett, Murphy, Robin Yount and George Bell), including two (Murphy and Yount) who won twice, and two Rookies of the Year (Fisk and Alfredo Griffin).
Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Juan Agosto, Wally Backman, Steve Balboni, Randy Bush, Iván Calderón, Henry Cotto, Glenn Davis, Ken Dayley, Frank DiPino, Bill Doran, Dan Gladden, Alfredo Griffin, Kelly Gruber, Neal Heaton, Steve Lake, Terry Leach, Bob McClure, Gene Nelson, Pete O'Brien, Geno Petralli, Ted Power, John Russell, Bryn Smith, Tim Teufel, Dickie Thon, Jose Uribe, Bob Walk, Chico Walker, Curtis Wilkerson, Glenn Wilson, Curt Young, and Matt Young.
The Veterans Committee[]
The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to elect as many as two executives, managers, umpires, and older major league players --the categories considered in all its meetings since 1953.
The older players eligible were those with ten major league seasons beginning 1945 or earlier; those who received at least 100 votes from the BBWAA in some election up to 1990; and those who received at least 60% support in some election beginning 1991. Players on Major League Baseball's ineligible list were also ineligible for election.
By an arrangement since 1995 the committee separately considered candidates from the Negro Leagues and from the 19th century with authority to select one from each of those two special ballots. It elected four people, the maximum number permitted: first baseman Orlando Cepeda from the 1960s, umpire Nestor Chylak, pitcher Smokey Joe Williams from the Negro Leagues, and manager Frank Selee from the 19th century.
J.G. Taylor Spink Award[]
Bob Stevens received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer. (The award was voted at the December 1998 meeting of the BBWAA, dated 1998, and conferred in the summer 1999 ceremonies.)
Ford C. Frick Award[]
Arch McDonald received the Ford C. Frick Award honoring a baseball broadcaster.
External links[]
- 1999 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org.
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