The Hall of Fame announced changes to its Era Commission’s qualifications. From the upcoming year on the ERA committee vote, no candidate who has won at least 5 of the 16 votes is not eligible for consideration in its next cycle. Candidates who received four votes or fewer votes in two different cases are ruled to be permanently qualified for future consideration.
The Times Commission (formerly known as the Veterans Commission) is a less common avenue. It aims to reconsider players not elected by the American Baseball Writers Association. The Times Committee also considered the induction of non-contenders (i.e. managers, executives and referees). The BBWAA voting process is unique to players.
To be elected, the Times Committee candidate must receive 12 of 16 votes. The voting team is usually composed of long-term coaches and executives as well as Hall of Fame players. The smaller voting pool means that their usual induction standards are slightly lower than the BBWAA, which requires 75% approval from larger media members.
The Times Committee process is rotating for three years. Within a year, it will consider individuals from the “classic baseball era” whose most important contribution to the sport was before 1980, including veterans of the Black League. The other two subsets are “Contemporary Baseball Era.” This includes the players who have made the most contributions in a year, as well as managers/executives/referees from the same era.
Last offseason was considered a classic baseball era. Doing so every year, the committee voted on eight candidates: Dick Allen,,,,, Ken Boye,,,,, John Donaldson,,,,, Steve Garvey,,,,, Dave Parker,,,,, Vic Harris,,,,, Tommy John and Luis Tiant. Allen and Parker each received at least 12 votes and will be selected this summer with three players from the BBWAA election: Ichigo,,,,, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. Of the remaining six candidates, only John (seven votes) received at least five votes.
Rule changes are not retroactive and therefore do not currently affect any other candidates. However, under the new system, those who won’t be allowed to get five votes are allowed in the vote when their ERA is reconsidered within three years. They may be considered four votes four years later, but getting five votes again will end their chances of the Hall of Fame.
The hall hopes to diversify the candidates for its assessment. The logic may be that anyone who only gets a small number of votes from multiple committees is unlikely to receive serious consideration and should be removed to support others. In this sense, it will be like an analogue of the sometimes controversial 5% voting threshold that keeps players in the BBWAA vote every year.
The class this December will consider players from the contemporary era. The managers/referees/executives of the contemporary era will be their turn in 2026. The classic era will appear again in 2027.
