Lou Whitaker - Hall of Fame Eligibility

Hall of Fame Eligibility

Lou Whitaker is currently ineligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame; he did not receive the required five percent of the votes in his first (and only) year of eligibility (in 2001). Despite having statistics comparable to other second basemen in the Hall of Fame (including contemporary Ryne Sandberg, a third-year inductee), Whitaker was dismissed from the ballot after receiving fifteen votes, or 2.9%. This surprised many observers, including Bill James, who named Whitaker the thirteenth-best second baseman of all time in The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Whitaker is now ineligible for baseball's highest honor until 2015.