Editing Veterans Committee (section)

==Revisions to the voting process==

===2001 revisions===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2022}}
In 2001, the Hall of Fame radically changed the composition and election procedures for the Veterans Committee, which was revised to consist of:

*All living members of the Hall of Fame;
*All living recipients of the [[Ford C. Frick Award]] for baseball broadcasters;
*And all living recipients of the [[J. G. Taylor Spink Award]] for baseball writers.

All members of the former Veterans Committee remained active until the expiration of their terms. Only two were on the committee for the [[2003 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|2003 election]], the first under the new election procedures. Only one of the former Veterans Committee members ([[John McHale (baseball)|John McHale]]) remained on the committee for the [[2005 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|2005]] and [[2007 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|2007 elections]], and his term expired immediately after the 2007 election.

The election procedures instituted in 2003 are listed below. The procedures were [[#2007 revisions|changed again in 2007]]. Rules, and portions thereof, that changed in 2007 are indicated in ''italics''.
*Elections for players would now be held every two years, starting in 2003.
*''Managers, umpires, and executives would be elected from a single composite ballot every four years, starting in 2003.''
*The Historical Overview Committee, a ten-member panel appointed by the secretary-treasurer of the [[Baseball Writers' Association of America]], created an initial list of figures ''from whom both ballots would be created''. At this point, the players' ballot consisted of ''200 players''.
*Ballots were screened ''by two groups – a sixty-member panel drawn from the membership of the BBWAA'', and a panel of six living Hall of Famers selected by the Hall of Fame Board. The Hall of Famer panel selected five players for the players' ballot'', and the BBWAA panel selected twenty-five players for the players' ballot, as well as all candidates for the composite ballot.''
*The selections of the Hall of Famer and BBWAA panels were then merged, creating a single players' ballot. Players chosen on both ballots appeared only once on this ballot, which now contained a ''minimum of twenty-five and a maximum of thirty players.''
*The players' ballot and ''composite ballot (fifteen candidates)'' are made public before voting.
*Balloting is held by mail, with a stated deadline.
*The Veterans Committee vote is made public after voting.
*All candidates who receive 75% or more of the vote are elected; election is no longer restricted to only the top vote-getter.
*''Every player with ten or more years of major-league experience who has not been active in the previous twenty years, and is not on Major League Baseball's ineligible list, is eligible for Veterans Committee consideration.'' In the past, players who did not receive a certain percentage of the votes on a BBWAA ballot were permanently ineligible for Hall of Fame consideration.

Using these procedures, no one was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2003, 2005, or 2007.

===2007 revisions===
Following the 2007 elections, the makeup of the committee was again changed, and several procedures were also modified:<ref name=2007RuleChange>{{cite web|url=http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070725&content_id=4326&vkey=hof_news |title=Veterans Committee Process Revamped |first=Jack |last=O'Connell |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum |date=2007-07-28 |access-date=2007-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208103617/http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070725&content_id=4326&vkey=hof_news |archive-date=2007-12-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

;Changes affecting all elections
*The Historical Overview Committee will continue to formulate the players and managers/umpires ballots, but it will now present a players' ballot of only twenty players and a managers/umpires ballot of only ten figures. The executives ballot, consisting of ten individuals, will be formulated by the voting body for that ballot.

;Changes affecting player elections
*The players ballot is now restricted to players whose careers began in 1943 or later.
*Voting for the players ballot is now restricted to Hall of Fame '''''members'''''. Winners of the Frick and Spink Awards are considered "honorees" and are thus ineligible to vote on the main players ballot.
*The list of those eligible for the players ballot will be separately reviewed by a six-member panel of Hall of Famers, which will select five players for the ballot.
*Next, all living Hall of Famers are invited to a meeting at the Hall of Fame during induction weekend. The Hall of Famers who are present at this meeting will narrow the list to a final ballot of 10 players.
*The final players ballot is sent to all living Hall of Famers, who can vote for as many as four individuals.

;Pre-World War II players
*Players whose careers began before 1943 are now considered ''every five years'' by a committee of twelve Hall of Famers, writers, and baseball historians, to be chosen by the Hall of Fame Board. The first election of pre-World War II players was conducted in 2009.

;Changes affecting non-player elections
*The composite ballot will be split into two separate ballots, one for managers and umpires and the other for executives.
*Voting on the managers/umpires and executives ballots will now be conducted for induction in even-numbered years, starting with the class of 2008.
*The voting body for the managers/umpires ballot will be a sixteen-member body of Hall of Famers, executives, and media veterans appointed by the Hall of Fame Board.
*The voting body for the executives ballot will be a separate twelve-member body of Hall of Famers, executives, and media veterans appointed by the Hall of Fame Board.
*Each ballot is presented to the applicable voting board. As is the case for the players' ballot, each voter can choose as many as four individuals.

The threshold for induction remained at 75% of all who voted on the appropriate ballot. In the first election held under the new rules, two managers and three executives were elected in December 2007 as part of the [[2008 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|2008 election process]].

===2010 revisions===
The Hall announced a new Veterans Committee voting process on June 26, 2010, effective with the [[2011 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|2011 election process]] that began late in 2010. The two biggest changes are:<ref name="2010 changes">{{cite press release|url=http://baseballhall.org/news/voting-news/hall-fame-board-directors-restructures-procedures-consideration-managers-umpires |title=Hall of Fame Board of Directors Restructures Procedures for Consideration of Managers, Umpires, Executives and Long-Retired Players |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum |date=July 26, 2010}}</ref>
* Managers, umpires, executives, and players will now be considered on a single ballot.
* Living Hall of Fame members will no longer constitute a single electoral body. Instead, separate 16-member subcommittees will be created to vote on individuals from different eras of baseball.

Candidates were classified by the time-periods that cover their greatest contributions:
* Pre-Integration Era (1871–1946)
* Golden Era (1947–1972)
* Expansion Era (1973 and later)

Candidates from each era were considered every third year, starting with the Expansion Era in the 2011 election (December 2010, 2013), followed by the Golden Era (December 2011, 2014) and then by the Pre-Integration Era (December 2012, 2015).

The existing Historical Overview Committee formulated each ballot for release in the October or November before the next planned induction ceremony. The Expansion Era ballot included 12 candidates, while the other two ballots included ten each. The Hall's Board of Directors selected 16-member committees for each era, made up of Hall of Famers, executives, baseball historians, and media members. Each committee convened at the Winter Meetings in December to consider and vote on candidates from its assigned era. As before, the threshold of induction remained at 75% of those voting.<ref name="2010 changes"/>

===2016 revisions===
On July 23, 2016, the Hall of Fame announced changes to the Era Committee system. Highlighting these changes was a restructuring of the time-frames to be considered, with a much greater emphasis on modern eras. Additionally, those major league players, managers, umpires and executives who excelled before 1950, as well Negro leagues stars, would still be afforded an opportunity to have their careers reviewed, but with less frequency.<ref name="2016 changes">{{cite press release|url=http://baseballhall.org/news/hall-of-fame-announcements|title=Hall of Fame Makes Series of Announcements|publisher=[[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]]|date=2016-07-23|access-date=2016-08-14}}</ref>

Separate 16-member subcommittees were defined to vote on individuals from different eras of baseball, with candidates still being classified by the time-periods that covered their greatest contributions:
* Early Baseball (1871–1949)
* Golden Days (1950–1969)
* Modern Baseball (1970–1987)
* Today's Game (1988–present)

The size of all committee ballots was set at 10 candidates. Whilst there was previously a one-year waiting period after elimination from annual BBWAA consideration, that waiting period was removed. The Today's Game and Modern Baseball committees were scheduled to convene twice every five years, the Golden Days committee once every five years, and the Early Baseball committee once every 10 years.<ref name="2016 changes"/>

While meetings take place in December, voting was included with the induction class for the following calendar year (e.g. December 2016 committee balloting was part of 2017 Hall of Fame elections and induction).

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 90%;"
|+Committee meeting rotation
|-
! Meeting year !! Induction year !! Era Committee(s) meeting
|-
| 2016 || {{bhofy|2017}} || Today's Game
|-
| 2017 || {{bhofy|2018}} || Modern Baseball
|-
| 2018 || {{bhofy|2019}} || Today's Game
|-
| 2019 || {{strikethrough|{{bhofy|2020}}}} {{bhofy|2021}} || Modern Baseball
|-
| 2021 || {{bhofy|2022}} || Golden Days, Early Baseball
|}

The induction ceremony originally scheduled for July 26, 2020, was cancelled due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]; persons originally scheduled for induction in 2020 were inducted in 2021. Committee meetings originally scheduled for December 2020 (Golden Days and Early Baseball) were postponed for a year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name="fagan1">{{cite news |url=https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/2020-baseball-hall-of-fame-ballot-will-anyone-be-elected-this-year/d1rqzyws3v8e19mubkbgq5vnu |title=2020 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot: Will anyone be elected this year? |first=Ryan |last=Fagan |website=[[Sporting News]] |date=November 16, 2020 |access-date=November 16, 2020}}</ref> Committee scheduling for 2022 and beyond is not presented here, as the structure of committees was further amended in April 2022.

The criteria for committee eligibility differed for players, managers, and executives:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/rules/eras-committees|title=Era Rules for Election|work=Eras Committees|publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|access-date=July 31, 2018}}</ref>
* Players: Must be retired for at least 15 years. This means that no player will be eligible for committee consideration until a minimum of 10 years after he first becomes eligible to appear on the BBWAA ballot, regardless of whether or not he appears on a ballot.
** The Hall has not yet established a policy on the timing of eligibility for committee consideration for players who die while active or during the standard 5-year waiting period for BBWAA eligibility. In these instances, the standard waiting period for BBWAA eligibility of 5 years from retirement is shortened to 6 months from death.
* Managers and umpires: Must have at least 10 years of service in that role, and either be (1) retired for at least 5 years or (2) at least age 65 ''and'' retired for 6 months.
* Executives: Must be retired for at least 5 years, or be at least age 70. Executives who meet the age cutoff will be considered regardless of their positions in an organization or their currently active statuses. Previously, active executives 65 years or older were eligible for consideration.<ref name="2016 changes"/>

===2022 revisions===
The Hall of Fame announced additional changes to its era committees on April 22, 2022, effective immediately.<ref name=newformat/> The multiple eras previously utilized were collapsed into just two eras: the Contemporary Baseball Era (1980–present) and the Classic Baseball Era (prior to 1980).<ref name=newformat/> An annual rotation of three ballots was also defined:<ref name=newformat/>
* Contemporary Baseball Era players: balloting in December 2022 for the class of 2023
* Contemporary Baseball Era non-players (managers, executives, and umpires): balloting in December 2023 for the class of 2024
* Classic Baseball Era: balloting in December 2024 for the class of 2025
The rotation will then continue every three years.<ref name=newformat/> A one-year waiting period beyond potential BBWAA eligibility (which had been abolished in 2016) was reintroduced, thus restricting the committee to considering players retired for at least 16 seasons.<ref name=newformat/> 

In 2025, the eligibility rules were modified to require a candidate who did not receive a minimum of five votes to skip consideration for their next ballot cycle and wait six years for reconsideration; additionally, any candidate who fails to receive five votes on multiple ballots will be barred from any further consideration in the future.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.mlb.com/news/hall-of-fame-changes-era-committee-eligibility|website=MLB.com|publisher=Major League Baseball|date=March 6, 2025|title=Baseball Hall of Fame announces changes to Era Committee eligibility requirements|first=David|last=Adler}}</ref>