Hall of Fame Inductees

[The Gipper]

Harold Baines got the call to Cooperstown on Sunday night, announced during baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas, and will be inducted along with longtime closer Lee Smith, who was the all-time saves leader from 1993-2005, and finished with 478 career saves while pitching for eight teams.

Both were voted in as veterans committee choices, part of Today’s Era which encompasses players whose greatest contributions came after 1988. Smith received votes from all 16 members of the Today’s Era committee while Baines received 12 votes, exactly the 75 percent needed for induction.

Regular committee possibilities:

Roy Halladay, Todd Helton, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera are among several players who will make their BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot debut in 2019.

Also debuting this year are Rick Ankiel, Jason Bay, Lance Berkman, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland, Travis Hafner, Ted Lilly, Derek Lowe, Darren Oliver, Roy Oswalt, Juan Pierre, Placido Polanco, Miguel Tejada, Vernon Wells, Kevin Youkilis and Michael Young.

(no chance on any of these...fair to say?)

Among returnees on the BBWAA ballot, Edgar Martinez received 70.4 percent of the vote in 2018 and returns for his final appearance on the BBWAA ballot this year. Mike Mussina is the only other returnee who reached the 60-percent mark in 2018, coming in at 63.5 percent

Any candidate who receives votes on 75 percent of all ballots cast will earn election to the Hall of Fame.

 

" style="color:#9a1c1f" rel="external nofollow">BBWAA Election Process12:44

Fifteen former players are returning to the 2019 BBWAA ballot after receiving at least five percent of the overall vote in 2017.

• Edgar Martínez
  70.4%
  10th year
• Mike Mussina
  63.5%
  6th year
• Roger Clemens
  57.3%
  7th year

• Barry Bonds
  56.4%
  7th year
• Curt Schilling
  51.2%
  6th year
• Omar Vizquel
  37.0%
  2nd year

• Larry Walker
  34.1%
  9th year
• Fred McGriff
  23.2%
  10th year
• Manny Ramírez
  22.0%
  3rd year

• Jeff Kent
  14.5%
  6th year
• Gary Sheffield
  11.1%
  5th year
• Billy Wagner
  11.1%
  4th year

• Scott Rolen
  10.2%
  2nd year
• Sammy Sosa
  7.8%
  7th year
• Andruw Jones
  7.3%
  2nd year

So...who besides Smith and Baines goes in?

[Browns149]

Mariano Rivera is a lock. He might get the highest percentage of votes All-Time

[mjp28]

A lot depends if any of the PED era players get in, big numbers -but- a dark spot on MLB.

Might help players like Omar Vizquel.

[The Gipper]

Right.....Make way for the Cheaters,  make way for the foolhardy clowns.

By the way.....I recently saw a TV true crime show on the guy who was the lead singer for this act:   Walter Scott.    He was murdered in the early 80s, and his body was only found several years ago.  

The thing is....the events of his life mimicked this song:   It was a guy that his wife was cheating on him with that was convicted of his murder.