1946 Hall of Fame Election

The 1946 Hall of Fame Induction took place in two rounds, in order to address the problem of the writers' votes being spread over too many candidates, resulting in no one gaining election. The first round thus became a nominating vote, followed by a regular election with a ballot featuring the top twenty candidates from the nominating vote. Yet, in spite of this new procedure, the BBWAA once again failed to get anyone elected.

As had been the case the previous year, the Old Timers Committee stepped boldly into the breach and elected a batch of 11 candidates, including some selections that have since proven to be controversial, such as electing the entire "Tinker to Evers to Chance" infield in one fell swoop, or of the somewhat famous but rather mediocre 19th-century outfielder Tommy McCarthy. But more problematic than the individual names was that a majority of Hall of Fame members were now being elected through a mechanism different than the one originally envisaged by the Hall's creators.

BBWAA Vote

198 of 263 votes needed for election

Nominating Ballot

Player	Votes	Result
Frank Chance	144	Nominated
Johnny Evers	130	Nominated
Miller Huggins	129	Nominated
Rube Waddell	122	Nominated
Ed Walsh	115	Nominated
Frankie Frisch	104	Nominated
Carl Hubbell	101	Nominated
Mickey Cochrane	80	Nominated
Clark Griffith	73	Nominated
Lefty Grove	71	Nominated
Pie Traynor	65	Nominated
Mordecai Brown	56	Nominated
Joe Tinker	55	Nominated
Joe McGinnity	53	Nominated
Rabbit Maranville	50	Nominated
Charlie Gehringer	43	Nominated
Herb Pennock	41	Nominated
Dizzy Dean	40	Nominated
Bill Dickey	40	Nominated
Frank Baker	39	Nominated
Chief Bender	39	Nominated
Ray Schalk	36
Eddie Plank	34
Bill Terry	31
Dazzy Vance	31
Jimmie Foxx	26
Ross Youngs	25
Harry Heilmann	23
Johnny Kling	20
Addie Joss	14
Nap Rucker	13
Edd Roush	11
Sam Crawford	9
Babe Adams	6
Lou Criger	6
Rube Marquard	6
Zack Wheat	6
Joe Wood	5
Bill Donovan	4
Lefty Gomez	4
Paul Waner	4
Ted Lyons	3
Jesse Burkett	2
Donie Bush	2
Jack Coombs	2
Harry Davis	2
Gabby Hartnett	2
Joe Jackson	2
Bill McKechnie	2
Dave Bancroft	1
Ginger Beaumont	1
Bill Bradley	1
Jack Chesbro	1
John Clarkson	1
Gavvy Cravath	1
Bill Dineen	1
Jack Dunn	1
Eddie Grant	1
Charlie Grimm	1
Waite Hoyt	1
Fielder Jones	1
Bill Killefer	1
Otto Knabe	1
Herman Long	1
Sherry Magee	1
Pepper Martin	1
Kid Nichols	1
Deacon Phillippe	1
Muddy Ruel	1
Jimmy Sheckard	1
Al Simmons	1
Billy Southworth	1
Tully Sparks	1
Billy Sullivan	1
Jesse Tannehill	1
Fred Tenney	1

Regular Ballot

Player	Votes	Result
Frank Chance	150
Johnny Evers	110
Miller Huggins	106
Ed Walsh	106
Rube Waddell	87
Clark Griffith	82
Carl Hubbell	75
Frankie Frisch	67
Mickey Cochrane	65
Lefty Grove	61
Pie Traynor	53
Mordecai Brown	48
Joe McGinnity	47
Dizzy Dean	45
Joe Tinker	45
Frank Baker	36
Chief Bender	35
Bill Dickey	32
Rabbit Maranville	29
Charlie Gehringer	23
Herb Pennock	16

Old Timers Committee

The ancestor of today's Veterans Committee once again stepped into the breach left wide open by the Baseball Writers' inability to get anyone elected and selected another large class of individuals, composed of both players whose candidacy was already being considered by the writers, and others from the 19th Century who were not. The eleven persons selected were the following: Jesse Burkett, Frank Chance, Jack Chesbro, Johnny Evers, Clark Griffith, Tommy McCarthy, Joe McGinnity, Eddie Plank, Joe Tinker, Rube Waddell and Ed Walsh.

Chance, Evers, Walsh, Waddell and Griffith were five of the top six vote-getters from the 20-name ballot submitted to the writers in the second round of voting, so in selecting these men, the Old Timers were in effect usurping the writers' prerogative. McGinnity and Tinker were also on that ballot, although finishing lower down the order. Plank had failed to make the first cut, while Chesbro had also been under consideration by the writers, but had hardly received any support. That left two names in the committee's proper purview: 19th Century outfielders Burkett and McCarthy. The former was a worthy selection, but McCarthy has since been derided as one of the committee's worst choices ever, which is particularly egregious since 19th Century players should have been its area of focus and expertise. And contrary to the writers' vote, where vote totals were released and some sense of the prevailing thinking was apparent, the Committee was acting with a complete lack of transparency and in a manner that can only be described as power-drunk.

Induction Ceremony

For the first time since the regular class of 1939 (excluding Lou Gehrig, who went through a special election) a proper induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, NY for the 11 new members - although only Ed Walsh showed up of the four inductees who were still alive. Former Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was also inducted at that time, after having been elected in a special election in 1944 - but Gehrig and 11 other players who had been elected in recent years and had not received a proper induction ceremony - were not. This oversight would not be remedied until 2013.