This is about baseball hall of fame voting.
*Voters are the approximately 600 writers who have been members of the BBWAA for 10 consecutive years at any point. *
Does this mean if I was a member of the BBWAA for ten years in a row during the 1999-2009 period, i can get to vote?
It sounds counterintuitive so I wanted to make sure.
The Baseball Hall of Fame inductees are voted on by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). Once a person has been an active member for 10 years, they are eligible for the Hall of Fame vote. They can continue to be eligible to vote even after they are no longer an active member if they achieve honorary lifetime member status, which is generally granted to members who have been dues-paying members for 10 years and are no longer active writers.
To be an active member in the BBWAA, you need to be a writer covering major league baseball for a newspaper, magazine, or major web site.
So yes, if you were an active member of the BBWAA during 1999-2009, you would have received a Hall of Fame ballot in the mail.
Sources:
To add on Ben Miller's answer, which is absolutely correct, the website Deadspin actually legally bought out one BBWAA member to claim the member's vote as Deadspin's vote. This member's name has not been released publicly yet.
What will happen is that Deadspin will turn the vote over to the Deadspin readers who will then, as a mass, vote on who they want inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Whoever the readers choose, the BBWAA member will then vote for the reader's chosen player.
So in this case, A BBWAA member is still voting for a player, but his/her vote is being sourced by readers from a website. The member's name will be published after the vote and will likely result in a firing of that person. Due to this obvious career ending dilemma, many think that this BBWAA member is at the end of his/her career.
You can read more about this in this article.
