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Im a medium hall guy, some are small, some are big, there will always be arguments.
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How does Mussina get only 20%? How does Walker get 10%?
When are they officially announced?
BTW, I have come to the realization that Bonds will probably never get into the Hall. As much of a joke as the HOF voting has become, I still consider Cooperstown to be my Mecca. Cant wait to go back again.
NEW YORK -- One of the most majestic induction classes in the history of the National Baseball Hall of Fame was set on Wednesday with the announcement that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas were elected by eligible writers of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, all of them by big margins.
On the ballot for the second time, Craig Biggio, who had 3,060 hits in 20 seasons, all with the Astros, did not get the necessary 75 percent, falling 0.2 percent shy of induction.
Already to be inducted in July are three of the greatest managers of all time -- Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa, all selected by the Expansion Era Committee last month.
That means six living members are heading toward one of the grandest Induction Weekends from July 26-27 in Cooperstown, N.Y. The results of this year's BBWAA vote were in stark contrast to that of last year, when the writers didn't elect anyone.
Maddux and Glavine, a pair of 300-game winners who pitched the bulk of their careers for the Braves, were the favorites, but the 571 voters outdid themselves by also adding Thomas. It was the first time since 1999, when Robin Yount, Nolan Ryan and George Brett were elected, that the writers put three first-time eligibles into the Hall.
Maddux, who won 355 games, the eighth-highest figure in Major League history, saw his name appear on 97.2 percent of the ballots, falling short of the all-time mark still held by Tom Seaver, who was elected on 98.84 percent of the vote in 1992. Glavine, who won 305 games, fourth-most among left-handers, was at 91.9 percent, and Thomas, a first baseman and designated hitter, who batted .301, hit 521 homers and amassed 1,704 RBIs in 19 seasons, 16 of them with the White Sox, finished at 83.7.
The trio will attend an 11 a.m. ET news conference on Thursday at the Waldorf Astoria New York that will be simulcast on MLB.com and MLB Network.
Jack Morris, who won 254 games during his 18-year big league career and World Series titles with the Tigers, Twins and Blue Jays, didn't make it in his 15th and final time on the writers' ballot. He actually lost ground, falling to 61.5 percent.
Maddux and Glavine are the only first-ballot pitchers to be elected together since Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson were part of the inaugural class of 1936 along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner. The last starter to be elected by the BBWAA was Bert Blyleven in 2011, his 14th year of eligibility.
The Hall hasn't inducted as many as six living baseball greats at the same time since 1971. Eleven were inducted in 1939, the year the red-brick museum opened its doors on Main Street, but they were from the first four classes, elected beginning in 1936. Last year, the three inductees elected by the Pre-Integration Committee -- Yankees seminal owner Jacob Ruppert, catcher Deacon White and umpire Hank O'Day -- were all deceased.
The Braves trio of Maddux, Glavine and Cox will be front and center in this, the 75th anniversary of the museum, during the ceremony behind the Clark Sports Center on July 27. Maddux also pitched 10 seasons for the Cubs and had brief stays with the Padres and Dodgers at the end of his career. Glavine spent 17 seasons with the Braves and five with the Mets. Cox managed Atlanta for 25 seasons and the Blue Jays for four.
The July 26 ceremony at Doubleday Field stands to be formidable as well, with former catcher and longtime TV announcer Joe Garagiola Sr. receiving the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, longtime magazine writer Roger Angell elected by the BBWAA as the winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for a career of meritorious baseball writing, and Rangers radio play-by-play man Eric Nadel earning the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting.
A year ago, when Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Mike Piazza -- players whose careers spanned baseball's era of performance-enhancing drug use -- made their initial appearances on the ballot, no one was elected by the writers for the first time since 1996, and only the second time since '71.
Writers again rejected those players, with Piazza leading the pack at 62.2 percent. Clemens and Bonds saw their percentages go down at 35.4 and 34.7, respectively, but Sosa, who hit 609 home runs and is the only player to have hit at least 60 homers in each of three seasons, slipped to 7.2 percent, barely remaining on the ballot.
A player must draw at least 5 percent of the vote each year to remain on the ballot for a maximum of 15 years.
Bonds is the all-time leader with 762 homers in his career and 73 in a single season. Clemens had 354 wins, one fewer than Maddux, and Piazza hit 396 of his 427 homers as a catcher -- the most of any player at that position in Major League history.
Kevin McAlpin @KevinMcAlpin 50s
JT Snow received 2 votes...Armando Benitez & Jacque Jones each got one. Two of those would have put Biggio to the necessary 75%
Some likely filled out all blank ballots yes.
Gresh (Tweets) & Zo @GreshandZo 58m
And the fact that 15 ******** left their ballot blank is unconscionable. That's worse than lebatard selling his.