How long until a player is Hall of Fame eligible?

Question

How many years does the player have to be retired to be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Answer 1

The FULL correct answer would be that they are eligible after 5 years from retirement, but the Hall of Fame reserves the right to waive the eligibility period if it so chooses. There have been players who were going to die, or they may have just died that have been put into the HOF ASAP. If you know what I mean. ;)

Answer 2

5

Answer 3

The player must be not have played in the major leagues for 5 full years before he is eligible. That means that a player who played his last game this past year would be eligible for consideration after the 2012 season (i.e., for the 2013 induction). There is a waiver to that 5 years if the player has died, in which case he's eligible for immediate consideration.

Answer 4

5 Years After Retirement, One Exception Was The Great Roberto Clemente. He Died Doing A Good Deed And Got In Earlier.

Answer 5

Five years from his last game played. Since ballots get distributed to the electorate in December and the vote return released in January, there is also an extra, incidental turn of the calendar. Example, Biggio retired at the end of this year, 2007, and will be first eligible to be on the 2013 ballot -- five years to October 2012, ballots that December, expected announcement of his election in January 2013, induction ceremony July/August 2013. So it works out to six years on the calendar, a factoid sometimes overlooked.

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Edit: This is for players who retire in the usual way. There is, as mentioned elsewhere, a speed-it-up option for players that die while an active player or before the five years expire. Clemente is the best known (Gehrig got in early as well, but he was before the policy was fixed), but Munson and Kile, as examples, also got accelerated consideration.

Answer 6

Five full seasons after they've retired. The players retiring this last year will be eligible for the 2013 induction.

Answer 7

5 years after retirement

Answer 8

Five years after retirement. This true of the NBA,NFL, and NHL Hall's of Fame also.

Answer 9

5 years after he retires he is eligible

Answer 10

Here, 5 years after they retire.
2007-2012
2008-2013
2009-2014
2010-2015