The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1952 or later, but not after 1966; the ballot included candidates from the 1971 ballot who received at least 5% of the vote but were not elected, along with selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1966. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.
Voters were instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. The ballot consisted of 46 players; a total of 396 ballots were cast, with 297 votes required for election. A total of 3,083 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.79 per ballot.
Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a dagger (†). The three candidates who received at least 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.
Frank Graham (1893–1965) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer.[2] The award was voted at the December 1971 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1972 ceremonies.