Veterans Committee
The Veterans Committee (official name: National Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans ) is a committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame which each year selects which baseball players, coaches, referees or sponsors are inducted into the Hall of Fame.
history
For decades the Veterans Committee consisted of 15 members, each of whom had a one-time 6-year term and who changed over regularly. The electoral system at that time stipulated that each year in the categories of players, coaches, referees and sponsors (usually presidents and patrons) only those people were included who won the election in their category and received at least 75% of all votes. The election result remained secret.
In 2001 this system was radically changed. Instead of the 15 members, all members of the Hall of Fame plus all recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award (honorary award for baseball radio commentators) or the JG Taylor Spink Award (honorary award for baseball journalists) could vote. The election was now public.
In 2007 there was another reform. Since then, the Frick and Spink Prize winners are no longer eligible to vote. You can now choose up to four people per list. Therefore, those people can also be included who did not win their election in their category, but received 75 percent or more of the votes.