Analyzing trends in baseball Hall of Fame voting, through the use of Multidimensional Scaling

The purpose of this study was to see if any trends exist within voting on the baseball Hall of Fame ballot. For this particular study I used the mathematical concept called Multidimensional Scaling. This approach allowed me to visually see the difference between players in relation to the number of votes received. The majority of the data obtained for this study was through the Baseball Writers' Association of America website and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum website. Through the use of Multidimensional Scaling and R programming, I was able to construct two dimensions within the voting on the ballot. It was decided that characteristics pertaining to certain players make an impact on the number of votes received.