Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1998

1998 Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Lee MacPhail Larry Doby Bullet Rogan Don Sutton George Davis
Top row, L-R: Lee MacPhail, Larry Doby, Bullet Rogan. Bottom row, L-R: Don Sutton, George Davis.

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1998 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 Don Sutton. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions and selected four people from multiple classified ballots: George Davis, Larry Doby, Lee MacPhail, and Bullet Rogan.

The BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1978 or later, but not after 1992; the ballot included candidates from the 1997 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 1992. 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 26 players; 473 ballots were cast, with 355 votes required for election. A total of 2,559 votes were cast, an average of 5.41 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote (24 votes) would not appear on future BBWAA ballots, and under then-current rules were also eliminated from future consideration by the Veterans Committee. A 2001 change in Hall policy restored the eligibility of players dropped from BBWAA balloting for Veterans Committee consideration.

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 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 *.

Ron Santo was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.

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 1999 ballot.
	Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. Under rules of the time, players who received less than 5% of the vote were also eliminated from Veterans Committee consideration, but their eligibility for that process was restored in 2001.

Player	Votes	Percent
Don Sutton	386	81.6
Tony Pérez	321	67.9
Ron Santo	204	43.1
Jim Rice	203	42.9
†Gary Carter	200	42.3
Steve Garvey	195	41.2
Bruce Sutter	147	31.1
Tommy John	129	27.3
Jim Kaat	129	27.3
Dave Parker	116	24.5
†Bert Blyleven	83	17.5
Dave Concepción	80	16.9
Minnie Miñoso	76	16.1
Luis Tiant	62	13.1
Keith Hernandez	51	10.8
Dwight Evans	49	10.4
Mickey Lolich	39	8.2
Ron Guidry	37	7.8
Bob Boone	26	5.5
†Jack Clark*	7	1.5
†Pedro Guerrero*	6	1.3
†Willie Randolph*	5	1.1
†Carney Lansford*	3	0.6
†Brian Downing*	2	0.4
†Mike Flanagan*	2	0.4
†Rick Dempsey*	1	0.2

The newly-eligible players included 17 All-Stars, nine of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 44 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 11-time All-Star Gary Carter, 6-time All-Star Willie Randolph and 5-time All-Stars Pedro Guerrero. The field also included one Cy Young Award-winner, Mike Flanagan.

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Jim Acker, Dave Anderson, Floyd Bannister, Jesse Barfield, Juan Berenguer, Dave Bergman, Don Carman, Rick Cerone, Mike Fitzgerald, Jim Gantner, Rich Gedman, Jerry Don Gleaton, Von Hayes, Brook Jacoby, Dennis Lamp, John Moses, Rance Mulliniks, Ken Oberkfell, Gary Pettis, Jamie Quirk, Rafael Ramirez, Don Robinson, Luis Salazar, Dave Schmidt, Mike Scioscia, Matt Sinatro, Dave Smith, Pat Tabler, Walt Terrell, and Denny Walling.

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. By an arrangement since 1995 it separately considered candidates from the Negro Leagues and from the 19th century with authority to select one from each of those two special ballots.

The committee elected four people, the maximum number permitted: center fielder Larry Doby from the 1950s, executive Lee MacPhail from the 1960s, pitcher Bullet Rogan from the Negro Leagues, and shortstop George Davis from the 19th century.

J.G. Taylor Spink Award

Sam Lacy received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer. (The award was voted at the December 1997 meeting of the BBWAA, dated 1997, and included in the summer 1998 ceremonies.)

Ford C. Frick Award

Jaime Jarrín received the Ford C. Frick Award honoring a baseball broadcaster.

External links

1998 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org.

Balloting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame

1930s–1940s	1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

1950s–1960s	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

1970s–1980s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990s–2000s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

List of members of the Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee Golden Era Committee Baseball Writers' Association of America

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