1999 Hall of Fame Election

In the 1999 Hall of Fame Election, 373 of 497 votes were needed for election

In what was probably the strongest class since 1939, the 1999 election had four candidates considered to be locks for election. The only question was how badly the vote would be split among Robin Yount and Carlton Fisk. Yount won election by 12 votes but Fisk fell 43 votes short in spite of his impeccable pedigree and had to wait until 2000 to be elected. four of the next five runners-up - Tony Perez, Gary Carter, Jim Rice and Bruce Sutter would also gain election in short order, confirming the strength of this particular ballot.

Interestingly, Bert Blyleven finished well down the list with only 70 votes, but he would also gain election by the BBWAA in a few years' time after a spirited campaign on his behalf largely led via the internet.

This was only the second election to feature three First Ballot Hall of Famers, after the inaugural 1939 class. This did not happen again until the back-to-back elections of 2014 and 2015.

BBWAA Voting Results

Player	Votes	Result
Nolan Ryan	491	Elected
George Brett	488	Elected
Robin Yount	385	Elected
Carlton Fisk	330
Tony Perez	302
Gary Carter	168
Steve Garvey	150
Jim Rice	146
Bruce Sutter	121
Jim Kaat	100
Dale Murphy	96
Tommy John	93
Dave Parker	80
Minnie Minoso	73
Bert Blyleven	70
Dave Concepcion	59
Luis Tiant	53
Keith Hernandez	34
Ron Guidry	31
Bob Boone	27
Mickey Lolich	26
Dwight Evans	18
George Bell	6
John Candelaria	1
Mike Boddicker	0
Charlie Leibrandt	0
Frank Tanana	0
Mike Witt	0

Veterans Committee

The Committee on Baseball Veterans selected four persons for induction: 1960s slugger Orlando Cepeda; umpire Nestor Chylak, 19th century manager Frank Selee; and Negro leagues pitcher Smokey Joe Williams.

Further Reading

• Austin Laymance: "Brett, Ryan, Yount formed historic '99 Hall class: Trio marked largest group of first-ballot inductees to Cooperstown", mlb.com, January 5, 2017. [1]