Baseball Hall of Fame voters elect four: Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, Craig Biggio
Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio have reached baseball immortality. They will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July, after the Baseball Writers Association of America announced Tuesday that the four of them earned the necessary votes for Cooperstown.
This is the third time in history that the BBWAA has elected four players. The others were 1947 and 1955. Had one more player reached the 75-percent threshold, it would have been the largest BBWAA class since 1936, when the first Hall of Fame vote enshrined Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
Johnson and Martinez, two dominant pitchers on the ballot for the first time, were elected easily, earning 97.3 percent of the vote and 91.1 percent, respectively. Smoltz, another first timer who was dominant as both a starting pitcher and a closer, received 82.9 percent. This was Biggio’s third time on the ballot. He missed Cooperstown by two votes in 2014, but earned 82.7 percent of the vote this time, thanks in large part of those 3,000 hits he compiled.
Mike Piazza was believed to have a shot to make it this year, but he finished with 69.9 percent. Of the remaining players on the ballot this time, the next closest to reaching the magic 75-percent threshold were: Jeff Bagwell (55.7), Tim Raines (55) and Curt Schilling (39.2). See the entire rundown of results at the BBWAA website.
A few other notable results from the 549 ballots cast by BBWAA members:
• None of the players most closely tied to PEDs has swayed enough voters yet. Barry Bonds (36.8), Roger Clemens (37.5), Mark McGwire (10) and Sammy Sosa (6.6) still aren’t close to reaching the Hall of Fame, but Bonds and Clemens were up slightly this year. We’ll wrestle with that moral dilemma of the PED era for at least one more year, and probably more.
• Don Mattingly, who was in his final year of eligibility, received 9.1 percent of the vote. He’ll have to depend on the veteran’s committee to put him in the Hall of Fame, but even that doesn’t seem too likely.
• The most notable player who didn’t get the 5 percent vote necessary to remain on the ballot for next year is Carlos Delgado, who earned 3.8 percent, or 21 votes.
Also worth noting: Biggio will be the first player to be enshrined as a member of the Houston Astros. Johnson, if he chooses either the Arizona Diamondbacks or Seattle Mariners, would be the first player enshrined as a member of either team.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
