Ghost writers
Sean Brennan is on target in pointing out that the lack of living 19th century players in the 1930s contributed to the limited HOF attention in players whose careers had ended prior to 1900. Even more significant was that nearly all of the sportswriters who covered their games or even saw them play as kids had also passed away. The writers who voted grew up watching the early 20th century stars and the early balloting reflects this "bias." Furthermore, statistics on 19th century baseball were spotty if not suspect as a result of changes in playing and scoring rules, and there were no encyclopedias, videotape or Internet (or even much microfilm) to fill the void.
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