1995 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting


1995 Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Top row: Mike Schmidt and Richie Ashburn.
Bottom row: Vic Willis and William Hulbert. Leon Day was also elected.

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1995 introduced a system of multiple classified ballots for consideration by the Veterans Committee. That group met in closed sessions as usual and selected four people:
Richie Ashburn, Leon Day, William Hulbert, and Vic Willis. Day and Hulbert were named from the new ballots for Negro Leagues and 19th century figures.
The Baseball Writers' Association of America voted by mail, per their usual process, to select from recent major league players; they elected Mike Schmidt. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on July 30, 1995.

The BBWAA election

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1975 or later, but not after 1989; the ballot included candidates from the 1994 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 1990. 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 39 players; a total of 460 ballots were cast, with 345 votes required for election. A total of 2,829 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.15 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.
Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a dagger. The one candidate who received at least 75% of the vote and was elected is indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The 14 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk.
Thurman Munson was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.
PlayerVotesPercentChangeYear
Mike Schmidt44496.5-1st
Phil Niekro28662.2 2.3%3rd
Don Sutton26457.4 0.6%2nd
Tony Pérez25956.3 1.4%4th
Steve Garvey19642.6 6.2%3rd
Tony Oliva14932.4 2.2%14th
Ron Santo13930.2 2.7%12th
Jim Rice13729.8-1st
Bruce Sutter13729.8 5.9%2nd
Jim Kaat10021.7 0.2%7th
†Tommy John9821.3-1st
Dick Allen7215.7 1.2%13th
Minnie Miñoso6614.3 4.4%11th
Curt Flood5912.8 4.2%14th
Joe Torre5010.9 0.7%13th
Luis Tiant459.8 0.6%8th
Dave Concepción439.3 2.5%2nd
Bobby Bonds357.6 0.5%9th
Vada Pinson327.0 3.1%14th
Thurman Munson306.5 0.3%15th
Graig Nettles286.1 2.2%2nd
Vida Blue265.7 2.6%4th
Mickey Lolich265.7 0.7%11th
Ron Guidry255.4 0.1%2nd
Rusty Staub235.0 2.9%5th
George Foster*194.1 0.6%4th
Don Baylor*122.6-2nd
†Buddy Bell*81.7-1st
†Darrell Evans*81.7-1st
†Kent Tekulve*61.3-1st
†Bob Forsch*20.4-1st
†Willie Hernández*20.4-1st
†Mike Krukow*10.2-1st
†Chris Speier*10.2-1st
†Jim Sundberg*10.2-1st
†Doyle Alexander*00.0-1st
†Greg Gross*00.0-1st
†Rick Rhoden*00.0-1st
†Manny Trillo*00.0-1st

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 1996 ballot.
Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

The newly-eligible players included 24 All-Stars, eleven of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 67 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 12-time All-Star Mike Schmidt, 8-time All-Star Jim Rice and 5-time All-Star Buddy Bell. The field included three MVPs and one Cy Young Award winner.
Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Luis Aguayo, Neil Allen, Tony Armas, Alan Ashby, Bruce Benedict, Mike Davis, Bob Dernier, Bo Díaz, Leon Durham, Tim Flannery, Damaso Garcia, Jerry Hairston, Sr., Glenn Hubbard, Lee Mazzilli, Keith Moreland, Dwayne Murphy, David Palmer, Shane Rawley, Craig Reynolds, Harry Spilman, Bob Stanley, Tim Stoddard, Steve Trout, Ron Washington, and Joel Youngblood.
In addition to Schmidt, Phillies broadcaster and former center fielder Richie Ashburn was inducted to the hall by the Veteran's Committee. Phillie fans were elated over the results, and came to Cooperstown that July in droves.

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 a new arrangement 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 Richie Ashburn from the 1950s, pitcher Vic Willis from the 1900s, pitcher Leon Day from the Negro Leagues, and from the 19th century William Hulbert, the founder and second president of the National League.

J.G. Taylor Spink Award

There was no Spink Award to a baseball writer in 1995.

Ford C. Frick Award

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