[egri]

Originally Posted by Tyruscobb

2020 was worse than 1972. The reason is Clemente was not a Hall of Famer when he died. Last year set the record for active HOFer deaths.

It includes members who hadn’t been voted in yet. Note Halladay and Santo are counted.

Originally Posted by Koufax32fan

I was looking for a listing of HOFers by the year of death to determine if 2020 is extraordinary based on the number of deaths. I could not find one easily, so I put one together using Baseball-Reference. (I can't upload an Excel spreadsheet, but am happy to share via email.) The six deaths (so far, and let's hope there are no more) this year is the second most during any year. In 1972, we lost seven HOFers (Wheat, Bancroft, Weiss, Traynor, Hartnett, Robinson (Jackie) and Clemente).

Recently, the history has been:

2019 - 1 (Frank Robinson)
2018 - 3 (McCovey, Harvey and Schoendienst)
2017 - 3 (Doerr, Bunning and Halladay)
2016 - 1 (Irvin)
2015 - 2 (Berra and Banks)
2014 - 2 (Kiner and Gwynn)
2013 - 2 (Musial and Weaver)
2012 - 3 (MacPhail, Miller and Carter)
2011 - 3 (Snider, Dick Williams and Killebrew)
2010 - 4 (Santo, Anderson, Roberts and Feller)
2009 - 1 (Kell)
2008 - None
2007 - 2 (Rizutto and Kuhn)
2006 - 1 (Puckett)
2005 - 1 (Lopez)
2004 - None
2003 - 2 (Spahn and Doby)
2002 - 3 (Slaughter, T. Williams and Wilhelm)
2001 - 3 (Boudreau, Mathews and Stargell)
2000 - 1 (Lemon)

So, yes, if you also have been feeling like 2020 has been extraordinarily sad based only on the number of HOFers we have lost, you have good reason to feel that way.