1955 Hall of Fame

When the Hall of Fame voting began, there really weren't many rules in place for voting. Now into the 1950's rules were still being fine tuned and tweaked. With the Veterans Committee in place, no one who retired more than 25 years before were allowed on the BBWAA ballot. That limit was extended to 30 years by the 1955 vote. Everything before that (as well as managers, owners and umpires for consideration) were handled by the Veterans Committee. Also, the "wait 5 years" policy was established, meaning that anyone who retired after 1949 had to wait for a shot.

1955 gave us four new HoF members from the BBWAA vote, something that wouldn't be seen again for a long time. The glut of elite players was slowly being worked through and voted in, and it wouldn't be such a large collection of players voted in for another 60 years. The Veterans Committee added another two names to the collection from yesteryear.