Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1990 followed the system in place since 1978. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected two, Joe Morgan and Jim Palmer. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider older major league players as well as managers, umpires, executives, and figures from the Negro leagues. It selected no one. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 6, 1990; after being delayed a day due to rain, it was held indoors due to continued bad weather.^[1]

BBWAA election

1990 inductees Joe Morgan (left) and Jim Palmer.

The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1970 or later, but not after 1984; the ballot included candidates from the 1989 ballot who received at least 5% of the vote but were not elected, along with selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1984. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.

Voters were instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. The ballot consisted of 44 players; a total of 444 ballots were cast, with 333 votes required for election. A total of 3,050 individual votes were cast, an average of 6.87 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.

Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a dagger (†). The two candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and was elected is indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The 20 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Roy Face was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.

Player Votes Percent Change Year †Jim Palmer 411 92.6 - 1st †Joe Morgan 363 81.8 - 1st Gaylord Perry 320 72.1 0 4.1% 2nd Fergie Jenkins 296 66.7 0 3.4% 2nd Jim Bunning 257 57.9 0 5.4% 14th Orlando Cepeda 211 47.5 0 8.1% 11th Tony Oliva 142 32.0 0 1.8% 9th Bill Mazeroski 131 29.5 0 0.5% 13th Harvey Kuenn 107 24.1 0 1.6% 14th Ron Santo 96 21.6 0 4.8% 7th Maury Wills 95 21.4 0 0.1% 13th Jim Kaat 79 17.8 0 1.7% 2nd Ken Boyer 78 17.6 0 3.7% 11th Dick Allen 58 13.1 0 5.3% 8th Joe Torre 55 12.4 0 3.5% 8th Minnie Miñoso 51 11.5 0 1.7% 6th Roy Face 50 11.3 0 0.8% 15th Luis Tiant 42 9.5 0 1.0% 3rd Vada Pinson 36 8.1 0 0.3% 9th Curt Flood 35 7.9 0 1.9% 9th Thurman Munson 33 7.4 0 0.5% 10th Bobby Bonds 30 6.8 0 0.3% 4th Mickey Lolich 27 6.1 0 4.4% 6th Sparky Lyle 25 5.6 - 3rd †Tug McGraw* 6 1.4 - 1st †Bucky Dent* 3 0.7 - 1st †Bob Watson* 3 0.7 - 1st †Rick Monday* 2 0.5 - 1st †Lou Piniella* 2 0.5 - 1st †Mickey Rivers* 2 0.5 - 1st †Jim Bibby* 1 0.2 - 1st †Greg Luzinski* 1 0.2 - 1st †Jerry Remy* 1 0.2 - 1st †Mike Torrez* 1 0.2 - 1st †Mike Caldwell* 0 0.0 - 1st †Roy Howell* 0 0.0 - 1st †Jose Morales* 0 0.0 - 1st †Amos Otis* 0 0.0 - 1st †Tony Scott* 0 0.0 - 1st †Ken Singleton* 0 0.0 - 1st †Paul Splittorff* 0 0.0 - 1st †John Stearns* 0 0.0 - 1st †Champ Summers* 0 0.0 - 1st †Dick Tidrow* 0 0.0 - 1st

Key to colors      Elected to the Hall. These individuals are also indicated in bold italics.      Players who were elected in future elections. These individuals are also indicated in plain italics.      Players not yet elected who returned on the 1991 ballot.      Eliminated from future BBWAA voting. These individuals remain eligible for future Veterans Committee consideration.

The newly eligible candidates included 19 All-Stars, four of whom were not on the ballot, who were selected a total of 50 times. The field included 10-time All-Star Joe Morgan, 6-time All-Star Jim Palmer, and 5-time All-Star Amos Otis. The group of new candidates include one MVP (Morgan, who won twice), one Cy Young Award winner (Palmer, who won thrice), and one Rookie of the Year (Lou Piniella).

Players eligible for the first time who were not on the ballot were: Glenn Abbott, Jerry Augustine, Tom Burgmeier, John Curtis, Jim Essian, Pete Falcone, Ron Hodges, Ron Jackson, Frank LaCorte, Jerry Martin, Milt May, Larry Milbourne, Sid Monge, Biff Pocoroba, Ron Reed, Leon Roberts, Craig Swan, Tom Underwood, Mike Vail, and Tom Veryzer.

J. G. Taylor Spink Award

Jerome Holtzman (1926–2008) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer.^[2] The award was voted at the December 1989 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1990 ceremonies.