1995 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

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 (23 votes) 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.

Player Votes Percent Change Year †Mike Schmidt 444 96.5 - 1st Phil Niekro 286 62.2 0 2.3% 3rd Don Sutton 264 57.4 0 0.6% 2nd Tony Pérez 259 56.3 0 1.4% 4th Steve Garvey 196 42.6 0 6.2% 3rd Tony Oliva 149 32.4 0 2.2% 14th Ron Santo 139 30.2 0 2.7% 12th †Jim Rice 137 29.8 - 1st Bruce Sutter 137 29.8 0 5.9% 2nd Jim Kaat 100 21.7 0 0.2% 7th †Tommy John 98 21.3 - 1st Dick Allen 72 15.7 0 1.2% 13th Minnie Miñoso 66 14.3 0 4.4% 11th Curt Flood 59 12.8 0 4.2% 14th Joe Torre 50 10.9 0 0.7% 13th Luis Tiant 45 9.8 0 0.6% 8th Dave Concepción 43 9.3 0 2.5% 2nd Bobby Bonds 35 7.6 0 0.5% 9th Vada Pinson 32 7.0 0 3.1% 14th Thurman Munson 30 6.5 0 0.3% 15th Graig Nettles 28 6.1 0 2.2% 2nd Vida Blue 26 5.7 0 2.6% 4th Mickey Lolich 26 5.7 0 0.7% 11th Ron Guidry 25 5.4 0 0.1% 2nd Rusty Staub 23 5.0 0 2.9% 5th George Foster* 19 4.1 0 0.6% 4th Don Baylor* 12 2.6 - 2nd †Buddy Bell* 8 1.7 - 1st †Darrell Evans* 8 1.7 - 1st †Kent Tekulve* 6 1.3 - 1st †Bob Forsch* 2 0.4 - 1st †Willie Hernández* 2 0.4 - 1st †Mike Krukow* 1 0.2 - 1st †Chris Speier* 1 0.2 - 1st †Jim Sundberg* 1 0.2 - 1st †Doyle Alexander* 0 0.0 - 1st †Greg Gross* 0 0.0 - 1st †Rick Rhoden* 0 0.0 - 1st †Manny Trillo* 0 0.0 - 1st

Key to colors      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 (Schmidt, Rice and Willie Hernández) and one Cy Young Award winner (Hernández).

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 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.

There was no Spink Award to a baseball writer in 1995 (none voted at the December 1994 meeting at the BBWAA).

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

• 1995 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org.