1963 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting
Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1963 followed a system established for odd-number years after the 1956 election. Namely, the baseball writers were voting on recent players only in even-number years. Following the December 1962 death of J. G. Taylor Spink, publisher of The Sporting News, the Baseball Writers' Association of America inaugurated the Spink Award to honor one baseball writer annually. Conferred as part of the induction ceremonies, Spink himself was the first person honored with the award, posthumously.
The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It selected four people: 19th-century 300-game winner John Clarkson, turn-of-the-century outfielder Elmer Flick, 266-game winner Eppa Rixey, and outfielder Sam Rice, who had 2987 career hits. Flick, Rixey, and Rice were all still living at the time the selections were announced, however Rixey died several months before the induction ceremony. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 5, 1963, with Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick presiding.
