many voters felt should be given priority, again continued to increase beyond the levels seen in 1939 and 1942. Only five of the top 22 candidates in the voting, and none of the top six, had seen any substantial play since 1917; only three of the top 36, and none of the top 22, had played their final season anytime between 1918 and 1933. Eight of the top 13 candidates were deceased. Players who had been retired over 27 years – 48 of the 94 named – received 72% of the votes. For the first time in the three BBWAA elections, no candidate received at least 75% of the vote. Particularly in view of the fact that the next election was not scheduled to be held until 1948, that a new generation of players was quickly becoming eligible, and that increasingly fractured voting patterns would make selections more improbable, criticism became widespread that the election system needed to be reviewed and quickly revised; it was suggested that the Old-Timers Committee might select some of the earliest popular candidates to help clear the top of the ballot. At its September 1945 meeting, the Hall of Fame Committee ordered that the three-year wait between elections be abolished, and that annual elections resume under a revised format. Candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics; players chosen by the Old-Timers Committee in 1945 are marked with an asterisk (*). Old-Timers Committee In response to the failure of the BBWAA to select any inductees, the Old-Timers Committee was encouraged to assist the BBWAA in clearing the congestion at the top of its ballot by including, among their 10 requested selections from the period 1876–1900, some players whose careers extended into the early 20th century – in particular, the three players gaining over 100 votes in the BBWAA election whose careers had peaked before 1905. The committee members were: Hall of Fame president Stephen C. Clark, who chaired the committee; Hall of Fame treasurer Paul S. Kerr, the committee secretary; Yankees president Ed Barrow; Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack; New York sportswriter Sid Mercer; Braves president Bob Quinn; and Boston sportswriter Mel Webb. The committee had initially planned to meet in February; but the long search for a successor to Landis, along with the retirements of Barrow and Quinn as club presidents, delayed the meeting until April 25, one day after