Griffey Jr & Piazza make it to Hall of Fame

[Mr Tony]

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/161180408/hall-of-fame-elects-griffey-piazza

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza are headed to Cooperstown as the Class of 2016.


Both were announced as Hall of Famers on Wednesday, when the Baseball Writers' Association of America voting was revealed live on MLB Network and MLB.com. Griffey was named on 99.3 percent of ballots (437 of 440), breaking the record of 98.84 percent set by Tom Seaver in 1992.

Piazza saw his support climb steadily over his four years on the ballot and cleared the 75-percent threshold this time, jumping from 69.9 percent in 2015 to 83 percent (365 of 440)

 

[Mr Tony]

Congrats to both!

Shocking that three people didnt vote Griffey...

 

[Mr Tony]

Top 10 vote-getters by percentage

Year Player Ballots cast Votes %
2016 Ken Griffey Jr. 440 437 99.30
1992 Tom Seaver 430 425 98.84
1999 Nolan Ryan 497 491 98.79
2007 Cal Ripken Jr. 545 537 98.53
1936 Ty Cobb 226 222 98.23
1999 George Brett 497 488 98.19
1982 Hank Aaron 415 406 97.83
2007 Tony Gwynn 545 532 97.60
2015 Randy Johnson 549 534 97.27
2014 Greg Maddux 571 555 97.20

 

[Mr Tony]

Bagwell's near miss bodes well for '17 Hall call

Former Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell fell just short in his bid to join long-time teammate Craig Biggio in getting inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, coming 15 votes shy on ballots cast by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and revealed on Wednesday.

Bagwell, in his sixth year on the ballot, saw his name appear on 315 of the 440 ballots, putting him at 71.6 percent. Players must appear on 75 percent of the ballots to gain induction, but Bagwell's huge jump in support from the 55.7 percent of the vote he received last year sets up well for him to make it in 2017.

 

[Mr Tony]

Raines gains, but falls short of Hall election

Tim Raines, one of the best leadoff hitters in history, is down to his final Hall of Fame at-bat. At least it appears that he'll take his swing with the count in his favor.

Raines was named on 69.8 percent of the ballots cast by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America when this year's results were revealed Wednesday night, short of the 75 percent required for induction in Cooperstown.

 

[Jimbo]

Congrats to both!

Shocking that three people didnt vote Griffey...

Exactly ....
Who the Hell said Nope, Griffey doesn't make it ?

 

[Mr Tony]

Learned something new today

The timeframe you can be on the ballot is now ten years (down from 15). This took place starting this year

 

[Jimbo]

Learned something new today

The timeframe you can be on the ballot is now ten years (down from 15). This took place starting this year

Do these voters ever change ?

 

[Mr Tony]

Do these voters ever change ?

What do you mean?
Use to be you were on the ballot for 15 years as long as you had 5% of the ballot. This year it dropped to 10 years

 

[Jimbo]

What do you mean?
Use to be you were on the ballot for 15 years as long as you had 5% of the ballot. This year it dropped to 10 years

No, I mean the people that actually do the voting ... not the length the players are on.

 

[Mr Tony]

oh
That I do not know

 

[DWS44]

Actually there was a big change in who is allowed to vote this year, weeding out some of the less-active voters. I won't try to recap it here, but you can find some articles about the change on ESPN. Read a couple mentioning it earlier today.

As a longtime Mets fan, very excited seeing Mike Piazza make it in. Well deserved!

It is a bit strange seeing all these guys elected into the different sports HOFs that I watched coming up and hitting the big time when I was a kid. I was just getting into ball cards when Griffey's Upper Deck rookie was the absolute thing to have. Few years later my parents joined in my hobby and we opened a sportscard shop during the height of the collecting craze in the early 90s. Now all those guys we sold rookie cards for are HOFers.

 

[Mr Tony]

It is a bit strange seeing all these guys elected into the different sports HOFs that I watched coming up and hitting the big time when I was a kid. I was just getting into ball cards when Griffey's Upper Deck rookie was the absolute thing to have.

agreed!
Still have mine stored away

 

[Stargazer]

I still have my baseball card collection that I had from 20+ years ago and remember these players as highly collectible back in the day. Glad that I still have the Griffey and Piazza Rookie cards. I got the whole set of 1989 Upper Deck including the #1 Griffey RC.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Congrats to both!

Shocking that three people didnt vote Griffey...

Not really, that seems to be the norm. There are some writers that like to get their name out there with their votes, or non-votes. We'll see if any come forward today with their reasoning for leaving him off....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stmcld]

It makes no sense to me that some writers simply don't believe anyone should ever be elected on the first ballot. Forget for just a minute that a player on the ballot does nothing to improve their numbers from one year to the next but it seems a few simply don't want a unanimous selection. I just don't get that thinking.

I was surprised Piazza got in this time and not Bagwell, but, that is just a personal opinion.

 

[Ramy]

Congrats to both!

Shocking that three people didnt vote Griffey...

Yeah I thought that too.

 

[Mr Tony]

looking ahead of next year's class the "head" looks like Vlad, Pudge and Manny