Every year, senior members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (those with 10+ years of seniority) get to vote on the players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This year there were 440 members eligible to cast votes for the 32 players on the ballot. A player needs 75% of those votes to enter the Hall.
It wasn’t unanimous, but Ken Griffey, Jr. came closest to that pursuit, achieving 99.3% of the votes (437 votes). It is the most votes received, by percentage, since voting began in 1936. Griffey is the 51st player to be elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot. With 83% of the vote this time around (his fourth year on the ballot), Mike Piazza will join Griffey on stage at Cooperstown. Piazza was 28 votes short of induction in 2015. Jeff Bagwell collected the third most votes (315), 15 short of the necessary amount for induction.
Schilling has strong showing, Clemens edges up
You can read more about the new Hall of Famers, well, anywhere. So let’s talk about the Hall of Fame as it affects our favorite team.
In his 4th year on the ballot, the divisive Roger Clemens collected 199 votes (45.2%). In his three previous years he had 206 (37.5%), 202 (35.4%), and 214 (37.6%).
The similarly polarizing Curt Schilling, also in his fourth year of eligibility, edged Clemens with 230 votes (52.3%). His previous three tallies were 215 (39.2%), 167 (29.2%), and 221 (38.8%).
Players can stay on the Hall of Fame ballot up to 10 times as long as they receive at least 5% of the vote. Accordingly, Hall of Fame dreams ended for Nomar Garciaparra, who received eight votes in this, his 2nd year on the ballot. It’s over, too, for Mike Lowell, who received no votes in his maiden year of eligibility.
Last season’s most famous inductee, Pedro Martinez, received 91.1% of the vote.
Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies will take place July 24, 2016 in Cooperstown, New York.