A look at a team of greats who were denied first-ballot election into the Hall of Fame
Twenty of the names on the 2019 Hall of Fame ballot are first-timers. With the exceptions of a couple, the most that candidates such as Todd Helton and Andy Pettitte could hope for was “wait ‘till next year.”
Those falling short of the 75 percent threshold can live in that hope. If history tells us anything, it is that failure to be elected on the first ballot is no barrier to eventual election.
In fact it’s happened to some of the game’s greats.
For a quarter-century between the inaugural election of 1936 and the election of Bob Feller and Jackie Robinson in 1962, voters failed to elect a single candidate on his first ballot. Not one. That’s despite the fact that the 1937-1961 elections presented numerous ‘no-brainer’ cases, among them Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Bill Terry, Dizzy Dean, Carl Hubbell, Mickey Cochrane, Ralph Kiner, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, and Hal Newhouser.
All of those men were eventually enshrined. All fell short on their initial bids.
In fact, a truly great All-Star team could be fashioned out of players who were passed over for enshrinement on their initial candidacies. Such a team would include the winningest pitcher in baseball history, the man with the second highest batting average in history, and the player who retired ranking second behind only Babe Ruth in career homers.
So as the Hall of Fame Class of 2019 is announced, let’s take a few moments to look back at immortals who were required to wait a year – and in some cases more – for their recognition. The format is a literal Hall of Fame “team”: a right-handed pitcher, a left-handed pitcher, four infielders, three outfielders, and a catcher.
Collectively, they are an illustration that in Hall of Fame voting, literally, anything can happen.