Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
For Griffey, it wasn’t a question of whether he’d make it in; it was a question of whether or not it would be unanimous. In the end, it wasn’t – he was named on 437 of the 440 ballots submitted, still enough for him to break the record for highest percentage of votes in Hall of Fame balloting history, a mark previously held by Tom Seaver.
Griffey won ten Gold Gloves in 22 seasons and won an MVP award. He was a remarkable all-around player, a star in center field who hit 630 career homers. Those numbers could have been even more ridiculous if his health had held out through his 30s.
Piazza was among the finest catchers of his era. He was a twelve time All Star and he hit to the tune of a .922 OPS over his sixteen year career. While he has been linked to steroid use, he was never implicated in the government investigations that ensnared the likes of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
Speaking of Bonds and Clemens, their totals rose slightly, with Clemens at 45.2 percent and Bonds at 44.3 percent. With the threshold at 75%, they still face an uphill climb if they’ll ever be elected, which should make Roy Halladay happy.
Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines both came very close, with 71.6 percent and 69.8 percent of the vote respectively. Both stand a good chance of getting in next year.
