Building the Ballot: The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Era Committees

The calendar has changed to September. The air is cooler. The leaves are changing colors. The kids are back at school. That means it's Hall of Fame season! This winter, the Classic Baseball Era Committee will meet to discuss candidates who made their mark on the game prior to 1980. I've been anxiously awaiting this ballot because it seems like an impossible task to distill about 140 years...

Today, Adrián Beltré, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer were elected to the Hall of Fame via the BBWAA Ballot. Dave Metter (@CooperstownDave) joins me to discuss the election results and answer listener questions.

Today we go outside the box. Mark Shirk ( @bballhist on Twitter) and Justin McKinney ( @Just_Mckinney on Twitter) join me to discuss players who we believe were at or close to a Hall of Fame level, but are not on the Hall of Fame radar (for a variety of reasons. Players discussed: Mark’s List: Charlie Keller Charlie Smith Mike Scioscia Ross Barnes Bobby Avila Buster Clarkson Marvin Williams Buzz A...

Tonight, Jim Leyland was announced as the lone inductee to the Hall of Fame from the Contemporary Era Committee’s Non-Player Ballot. Adam and Dave discuss the results of the election and look forward to future elections.

The Hall of Fame released the Contemporary Baseball Era’s Non-Players ballot, so I got on the line with Graham Womack and Dave Metter to discuss the candidates.

Today we welcome David Metter, aka Cooperstown Dave, to the show. David is a Baseball Hall of Fame enthusiast and previously ran the Vlad4HOF Twitter account. He has since pivoted the account (due to Vlad’s successful induction) to a general Hall of Fame account. He has recently been tweeting about non-player candidates and “Rule B” candidates (“Those whose careers entailed involvement in multiple...

Today I’m stepping outside of the Hall of Fame echo chamber to chat with an “old school” baseball guy (or maybe he just plays one on Twitter?). Even if we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things like WAR, I always appreciate remembering some underrated players with Not Gaetti (sorry, that’s the only name I’m at liberty to use). We discuss the Contemporary Baseball Era ballot, the BBWAA ballot, hitte...

Today Fred McGriff was selected for Hall of Fame induction by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. Graham and I discuss the results, what they mean for future elections, and more. Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/ Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandpresent.com/

Today the Hall of Fame announced the 2023 Contemporary Baseball Era Players Ballot. It is loaded with complicated candidates (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro) and “clean” ones (Dale Murphy, Fred McGriff, Don Mattingly). Oh, and Albert Belle. We don’t know how to classify him. To break it all down we are joined by Graham Womack. Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter....

The Hall of Fame threw us a curveball and announced some new changes to the Era Committee process, effective immediately. We’re joined again by Graham Womack to discuss the new Contemporary Baseball Era and Classic Baseball Era committees. Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/ Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastan...

After our deep dive into the Early Baseball and Golden Days Eras (including sidebars into Negro League and Latin American Baseball) in Season 1, we finally turn our attention to the 2023 Today’s Game Era Ballot in Season 2. Today we’re joined by Graham Womack to discuss the history of this Committee, who the returning candidates are, and the incredible group of new candidates who are eligible. In...

There’s one more episode I wanted to do before moving on to the next election cycle. When researching the Negro Leagues, the Pre-Negro Leagues, and Negro League MLEs, something kept coming up—Cuban baseball. It’s hard to talk about the Negro Leagues without including Cuban baseball. Today’s guest, Gary Ashwill of the Seamheads Negro League Database, will share stories about Cuban baseball and some...

Mark Armour returns for a chat that focuses on the Golden Days Era—specifically the 1955–1970 National League, which Mark calls “the best league ever.” Stars of the Negro Leagues were integrating the majors, but it was the National League that led the way. This leads to a pretty large disparity of talent between the NL and AL during the first two decades of integration. We look at some players fro...

Today I chat with Graig Kreindler, “The Painter of the National Pastime.” We discussed how he started painting baseball and how that turned into the huge Negro Leagues project (and card set) commissioned by Jay Caldwell for the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Then, Graig shared some stories about intersting subjects he’s tackled over the years by constructing a lineup. Graig’s website: htt...

Today we continue to explore the Negro Leagues and Negro League Hall of Fame candidates. We welcome Gary Gillette, Ted Knorr, and Sean Gibson to the podcast. Gillette, Knorr, and Gibson have joined together to form a new committee—named "42 for 21"—to publicize deserving Negro Leagues & Black Baseball candidates for upcoming Hall of Fame elections. We discuss their backgrounds, how the project...

The Era Committee elections may be over, but that doesn't mean I've stopped thinking about them. Since we last chatted, Eric Chalek's Negro League MLEs have been added to the Hall of Stats to power Hall Rating for Negro League candidates. Kevin Johnson of Seamheads joins the podcast to talk about the best Negro League (and Latin) candidates outside the Hall of Fame. MLE Hall Rating frames the disc...

The Hall of Fame's Early Baseball (pre-1950) and Golden Days (1950-1969) Era results are in and we have SIX new Hall of Famers. In the episode, Graham and I discuss the inductions of Minnie Miñoso, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, Buck O'Neil, and Bud Fowler. We also touch upon those who didn't make it (like Dick Allen once again finishing a vote short). We answer some questions from listeners—in...

After spending ten episodes figuring out who should be on the Hall of Fame's Early Baseball (pre-1950) and Golden Days (1950-1969) Era ballots, they finally came out on Friday, November 5. Graham Womack is back to discuss who made it on the ballot, who did not, how we would vote, and what we think might happen. Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude Baseball Past and Present: http...

In today’s special episode, we return to the Negro Leagues to chat with Eric Chalek, a researcher who has developed a set of MLEs (Major League Equivalencies) for Negro League stars. For the first time we can see Martîn Dihigo with 3,082 hits and 381 home runs—or Smokey Joe Williams with a 390-301 record with a 2.68 ERA—or Cool Papa Bell with 3,366 hits and 405 steals—or Josh Gibson with 435 home...

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Over the last three episodes, we covered a lot of candidates, but there were a few that I felt we didn’t explore enough. In this episode, we dig into those candidates. First, Mark Armour tells us about the career of Felipe Alou. Mark is the...

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Chris Bodig of Cooperstown Cred joins the podcast to discuss the 2015 Golden Era results, a relatively new rule added to the Era Committee process, and (of course) the players who would both make his ballot and get his vote. Chris Bodig on...

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. This time we welcome a very special guest: Jessica Brand. Jessica is sabermetrician, baseball historian, and a Stathead legend. We discuss the process Jessica would take toward building a Golden Days Era ballot. We touched upon some of the...

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Graham Womack joins the podcast again to discuss the history of the Golden Days Era Committee as well as the ten names he’d place on his ballot (and a few more). Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twitter.com/grahamdude Baseball Past and Pres...

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complica...

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 years of baseball into just ten names? To complica...