Lahman (version 4.0-1)

HallOfFame: Hall of Fame Voting Data

Description

Hall of Fame table. This is comprised of the voting results for all candidates nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Usage

data(HallOfFame)

Format

A data frame with 4088 observations on the following 9 variables.

playerID

Player ID code

yearID

Year of ballot

votedBy

Method by which player was voted upon. See Details

ballots

Total ballots cast in that year

needed

Number of votes needed for selection in that year

votes

Total votes received

inducted

Whether player was inducted by that vote or not (Y or N)

category

Category of candidate; a factor with levels Manager Pioneer/Executive Player Umpire

needed_note

Explanation of qualifiers for special elections

Source

Lahman, S. (2015) Lahman's Baseball Database, 1871-2014, 2015 version, http://baseball1.com/statistics/

Details

This table links to the Master table via the playerID.

votedBy: Most Hall of Fame inductees have been elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). Rules for election are described in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Baseball_Hall_of_Fame_and_Museum#Selection_process.

Examples

## Some examples for  Hall of Fame induction data

data('HallOfFame')
require('plyr')          ## extensive use of plyr for data manipulation 
require('ggplot2')

############################################################
## Some simple queries

# What are the different types of votedBy?
table(HallOfFame$votedBy)

# What was the first year of Hall of Fame elections?
sort(unique(HallOfFame$yearID))[1]
# Who comprised the original class?
subset(HallOfFame, yearID == 1936 & inducted == 'Y')

# Result of a player's last year on the BBWAA ballot
# Restrict to players voted by BBWAA:
HOFplayers <- subset(HallOfFame, votedBy == 'BBWAA' & category == 'Player')


# Function to calculate number of years as HOF candidate, last pct vote, etc.
# for a given player
HOFun <- function(d) {
    nyears <- nrow(d)
    fy <- d[nyears, ]
    lastPct <- with(fy, 100 * round(votes/ballots, 3))
    data.frame(playerID = fy$playerID, nyears, induct = fy$inducted,
               lastPct, lastYear = fy$yearID)
}

playerOutcomesHOF <- ddply(HOFplayers, .(playerID), HOFun)


############################################################
# How many voting years until election?
inducted <- subset(playerOutcomesHOF,induct == 'Y')
table(inducted$nyears)
barplot(table(inducted$nyears), main="Number of voting years until election",
		ylab="Number of players", xlab="Years")

# What is the form of this distribution?
require('vcd')
goodfit(inducted$nyears)
plot(goodfit(inducted$nyears), xlab='Number of years',
	main="Poissonness plot of number of years voting until election")
Ord_plot(table(inducted$nyears), xlab='Number of years')



# First ballot inductees:
subset(playerOutcomesHOF, nyears == 1L & induct == 'Y')

# Who took at least ten years on the ballot before induction?
# (Doesn't include Bert Blyleven, who was inducted in 2011.)
subset(playerOutcomesHOF, nyears >= 10L & induct == 'Y')

############################################################
## Plots of voting percentages over time for the borderline
## HOF candidates, according to the BBWAA:

# (1) Set up the data:
longTimers <- as.character(unlist(subset(playerOutcomesHOF,
                                         nyears >= 10, select = 'playerID')))
HOFlt <- subset(HallOfFame, playerID %in% longTimers & votedBy == 'BBWAA')
HOFlt <- ddply(HOFlt, .(playerID), mutate,
                  elected = ifelse(any(inducted == 'Y'),"Elected", "Not elected"),
                  pct = 100 * round(votes/ballots, 3))

# Plot the voting profiles:
ggplot(HOFlt, aes(x = yearID, y = pct,
                  group = playerID)) +
    ggtitle("Profiles of voting percentage for long-time HOF candidates") +
    geom_line() +
    geom_hline(yintercept = 75, col = 'red') +
    labs(list(x = "Year", y = "Percentage of votes")) +
    facet_wrap(~ elected, ncol = 1)

# Note: All but one of the players whose maximum voting percentage
# was over 60% and was not elected by the BBWAA has eventually been inducted
# into the HOF. Red Ruffing was elected in a 1967 runoff election while
# the others have been voted in by the Veterans Committee. The lone
# exception is Gil Hodges; his profile is the one that flatlines around 60%
# for several years in the late 70s and early 80s.