Baseball Hall of Fame 2011 Election: A Look Ahead

Every winter, the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY announces it's inductees for that year. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is the ultimate honor a player can garner, and only the best and the brightest are selected. Every year, a list of new candidates becomes eligible for election for the first time. A player becomes eligible for election to the Hall of Fame if they played at least 10 years in the major leagues and have been retired for five years.

First-time eligible players, plus those returning to the ballot from the previous election, are voted on by 10-year members of the Baseball Writer's Association of America, or BBWAA for short. These voters may vote for up to ten players, although many vote for far less. A player must be named on 75% of ballots to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Those named on 5% of ballots or more carry on to the next year's election. Those that receive less than 5% of the votes are dropped from the ballot. A player appears on the ballot for 15 years, or until he is elected or his vote total falls below 5%, whichever comes soonest. If a player is not elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA they can be elected by the Veterans committee, although they'd have been retired for 20-plus years at that point.

Since a player becomes eligible for election five years after they retire, we can look ahead several years to see what players will become eligible for the first in certain years. Today, we will look at players who will first become eligible for election to the Hall of Fame in 2011, in other words, players who retired after the 2005 season.