Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1945 included the first regular election conducted in three years and a strong response to criticism of the slow pace of honors. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent players, and elected no one. The Old Timers Committee responded by electing the biggest class yet, ten people. The selections by the Committee, announced in April 1945, were: Roger Bresnahan, Dan Brouthers, Fred Clarke, Jimmy Collins, Ed Delahanty, Hugh Duffy, Hughie Jennings, King Kelly, Jim O'Rourke, and Wilbert Robinson. After the baseball centennial and grand opening of the Hall of Fame in 1939, the BBWAA had determined to vote only every third year. After electing three players that year, it elected one in 1942 and none in 1945. New rules now provided that the writers would return to voting on recent players annually. 1944 background In response to increasing complaints that the stars of the 19th century were being ignored, commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis had in August 1944 enlarged the Hall of Fame Committee from four members to seven. He had instructed them to elect a minimum of 10 players from the 1876–1900 period when they met as the Old-Timers Committee in early 1945—a goal the committee members believed would be relatively easy to meet, as some among them stated that the number of qualified candidates was likely over two dozen. After Landis' death in November 1944, the committee met briefly and elected Landis to the Hall of Fame. They also suggested that if the January 1945 election by the BBWAA failed to select any players whose careers extended into the initial years of the 20th century, some would be selected by the committee when they met in February. BBWAA election Members of the BBWAA again had the authority to select any players active in the 20th century (after 1900), provided they had not appeared in a major league game in 1944. Voters were instructed to cast votes for 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. A total of 247 ballots were cast, with 2,362 individual votes for 95 specific candidates, an average of 9.56 per ballot; 186 votes were required for election. The results were announced on January 28, 1945. The emphasis on the players of the 1900s and 1910s, who