1972 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

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Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1972 followed the system established one year earlier. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected three: Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax, and Early Wynn. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It also selected three people: Lefty Gomez, Will Harridge, and Ross Youngs. The Negro Leagues Committee met for the second time and selected Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 7, 1972, with Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn presiding.^[1]

1972 inductees (L-R): Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, and Early Wynn

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1952 or later, but not after 1966; the ballot included candidates from the 1971 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 1966. 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 46 players; a total of 396 ballots were cast, with 297 votes required for election. A total of 3,083 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.79 per ballot.

Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a dagger (†). The three candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics.

Charlie Keller was on the ballot for the final time.

Player Votes Percent Change †Sandy Koufax 344 86.9 - Yogi Berra 339 85.6 0 18.4% Early Wynn 301 76.0 0 9.3% Ralph Kiner 235 59.3 0 0.4% Gil Hodges 161 40.7 0 9.3% Johnny Mize 157 39.6 0 4.0% Enos Slaughter 149 37.6 0 8.2% Pee Wee Reese 129 32.6 0 2.7% Marty Marion 120 30.3 0 3.9% Bob Lemon 117 29.5 0 4.5% George Kell 115 29.0 0 0.2% Allie Reynolds 105 26.5 0 4.1% Red Schoendienst 104 26.3 0 7.9% Phil Rizzuto 103 26.0 0 0.4% Hal Newhouser 92 23.2 0 2.9% Duke Snider 84 21.2 0 3.5% Nellie Fox 64 16.2 0 5.4% Phil Cavarretta 61 15.4 0 7.7% Alvin Dark 55 13.9 0 1.1% Dom DiMaggio 36 9.1 0 4.9% Bobo Newsom 31 7.8 0 3.1% Charlie Keller 24 6.1 0 2.2% Johnny Sain 21 5.3 0 2.2% Mickey Vernon 12 3.0 0 0.3% Richie Ashburn 11 2.8 - Ted Kluszewski 10 2.5 - Bobby Thomson 10 2.5 0 1.4% Harvey Haddix 9 2.3 0 0.5% †Roy McMillan 9 2.3 - Bobby Shantz 9 2.3 0 0.9% Walker Cooper 8 2.0 0 0.1% †Bobby Richardson 8 2.0 - Don Newcombe 7 1.8 0 0.4% Harry Brecheen 5 1.3 0 0.6% Dutch Leonard 5 1.3 0 0.5% Carl Erskine 4 1.0 0 0.2% Gil McDougald 4 1.0 0 0.1% Billy Pierce 4 1.0 0 0.9% Vic Raschi 4 1.0 0 0.4% Vic Wertz 4 1.0 0 0.4% Vic Power 3 0.8 0 0.2% Roy Sievers 3 0.8 0 0.3% Carl Furillo 2 0.5 0 0.9& Ed Lopat 2 0.5 0 0.6% Preacher Roe 2 0.5 0 0.3% Jackie Jensen 1 0.3 0 0.3%

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 1973 ballot.      Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Joe Adcock, Ed Bailey, Don Blasingame, Frank Bolling, Wes Covington, Roger Craig, Del Crandall, Joe Cunningham, Gene Freese, Bob Friend, Jim Gilliam, Ray Herbert, Billy Hoeft, Joey Jay, Eddie Kasko, Marty Keough, Héctor López, Jerry Lynch, Frank Malzone, Félix Mantilla, Joe Nuxhall, Bob Purkey, Steve Ridzik, Ed Roebuck, Bob Skinner and Frank Thomas.

Frank Graham (1893–1965) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer.^[2] The award was voted at the December 1971 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1972 ceremonies.

• 1972 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org