1954 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting

1953 inductees (L-R): Bill Dickey, Rabbit Maranville, and Bill Terry

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1954 followed a system practically the same as in 1952 because the new Veterans Committee was meeting only in odd-number years (until 1962). The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent players and elected three: Bill Dickey, Rabbit Maranville, and Bill Terry. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 9, 1954, with Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick presiding.^[1]

Any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. Votes were cast for 53 players; a total of 252 ballots were cast, with 189 votes required for election. A total of 2,091 individual votes were cast, an average of 8.30 per ballot.

The three candidates who received 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics.

Players were eligible if they had finished their career between 1928 and 1952. Starting with this election, players had to have been retired from baseball (including no longer working as a manager) for a minimum of five seasons to be eligible, unless they had received at least 100 votes in the prior year's election—those who qualified under this clause were Joe DiMaggio and Ted Lyons.^[2]

Player Votes Percent Change Rabbit Maranville 209 82.9 0 20.8% Bill Dickey 202 80.2 0 12.4% Bill Terry 195 77.4 0 5.1% Joe DiMaggio 175 69.4 0 25.1% Ted Lyons 170 67.5 0 14.8% Dazzy Vance 158 62.7 0 5.9% Gabby Hartnett 151 59.9 0 20.5% Hank Greenberg 97 38.5 0 8.2% Joe Cronin 85 33.7 0 7.6% Max Carey 55 21.8 0 1.0% Ray Schalk 54 21.4 0 1.7% Edd Roush 52 20.6 0 8.5% Hank Gowdy 51 20.2 0 1.8% Hack Wilson 48 19.0 0 2.7% Lefty Gomez 38 15.1 0 1.8% Ross Youngs 34 13.5 0 1.8% Zack Wheat 33 13.1 0 1.0% Tony Lazzeri 30 11.9 0 1.3% Red Ruffing 29 11.5 0 2.4% Kiki Cuyler 20 7.9 0 1.1% Duffy Lewis 20 7.9 0 0.3% Jim Bottomley 16 6.3 0 2.5% Rube Marquard 15 6.0 0 1.2% Waite Hoyt 14 5.6 0 0.3% Babe Adams 13 5.2 0 1.2% Dickie Kerr 13 5.2 0 0.3% Red Faber 12 4.8 0 1.4% Chuck Klein 11 4.4 - Dave Bancroft 10 4.0 0 0.2% Sam Rice 9 3.6 0 2.5% Jimmie Wilson 8 3.2 0 0.6% Wilbur Cooper 7 2.8 0 0.6% Art Nehf 7 2.8 0 1.3% Jesse Haines 6 2.4 0 0.9% Eppa Rixey 5 2.0 0 0.9% Muddy Ruel 5 2.0 0 1.0% Howard Ehmke 4 1.6 0 0.5% Everett Scott 4 1.6 0 0.3% Bill Wambsganss 4 1.6 0 1.2% Cy Williams 4 1.6 0 0.1% Clyde Milan 3 1.2 0 0.8% Nick Altrock 2 0.8 0 0.4% Chick Hafey 2 0.8 Arky Vaughan 2 0.8 0 0.4% Lu Blue 1 0.4 - Ossie Bluege 1 0.4 - Goose Goslin 1 0.4 - Heinie Groh 1 0.4 - Babe Herman 1 0.4 0 0.4% Travis Jackson 1 0.4 0 0.4% Roger Peckinpaugh 1 0.4 0 0.4% Joe Sewell 1 0.4 - Glenn Wright 1 0.4 0 0.7%

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.

• 1954 Election at www.baseballhalloffame.org