Three more former players were immortalized by the Baseball Writers
Association of America in 1937. Nap
Lajoie, Tris
Speaker, and Cy
Young all received the necessary 75% approval from the writers. The
trio were top three finishers in 1936 among those
who did not make the cut.
The rules for 1937 stated that the player must have been active since
1900 and could not have been active during the current year. This ruled
out Mickey
Cochrane, who finished 10th in 1936 but did not retire until after the
1937 season.
During the winter meetings in Chicago in December, a committee
consisting of Baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, AL President
Will Harridge, and NL President Ford
Frick collectively decided to add current Philadelphia Athletics
manager Connie
Mack, former New York Giants manager John
McGraw, 19th century baseball organizer George
Wright (who built the first pro team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red
Stockings), and the first president of each league: Morgan
Bulkeley of the National League and Ban
Johnson of the American. That the latter two were chosen
ahead of Alexander
Cartwright or Henry
Chadwick tells you all you need to know about the politics involved.
It's no different than politicians passing bills naming airports after
other deceased political hacks.
Votes by members of the BBWAA
were tabulated by the National
Baseball Hall of Fame. At least 151 votes were needed to be elected.
(Winners in bold.)
Note: Players who appeared on both
the BBWAA and "Veteran's Committee" ballots in 1936 had two
chances to get in. This is why Nap Lajoie and others are on their
"3rd" try even though this is year two of Hall voting.
Source: National Baseball Hall of
Fame. Special thanks to Keith Hemmelman for compiling the data.
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Awards