RIVERA, MUSSINA AND MARTINEZ ALSO GET IN

NEW YORK — Mariano Rivera has become baseball’s first unanimous Hall of Fame selection, elected along with Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina.

Rivera received all 425 votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Tuesday. The quartet will be enshrined in Cooperstown along with Today’s Game Era Committee selections Harold Baines and Lee Smith on July 21.

Rivera is baseball’s career saves leader with 652. Armed with his signature cut fastball, he won five World Series over 19 seasons with the New York Yankees.

Ken Griffey Jr. held the mark for top percentage at 99.32 when he was on 437 of 440 ballots two years ago.

Martinez was a .312 hitter over 18 seasons with Seattle. He got 85.4%in his 10th and final try on the writers’ ballot. He and Baines will join 2014 inductee Frank Thomas as the only Hall of Famers to play the majority of their games at designated hitter. David Ortiz will be eligible in 2022.

Mussina was a steady left-hander for the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles who went 270-153 with 2,813 strikeouts over 18 seasons. He received 76.7 per cent.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens made gains but again fell short in their seventh time on the ballot. Bonds got 59.1% and Clemens 59.5.

Martinez’s career had a late start. So waiting all 10 years on baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot before his election to Cooperstown was just another chapter in the arc of his life.

“I think the wait, I think I’m more mature right now. I think I’ve enjoyed it more at this point with my family, the way my kids are older now and it just has a lot of meaning, even more meaning now,” Martinez said. “The wait, actually it worked out well for me.”

It was a collective effort, from the Mariners organization constantly publicizing his worthiness, to die-hard fans who believed in the beloved Martinez, to voters taking a new look at the importance of a player who was primarily a designated hitter.

“I think it was really big part of why I’ve been elected,” Martinez said of the Mariners’ efforts. “They have done an amazing job sharing information about my career for the last seven years or so. and the effort and the work they have done definitely is one of the big reasons why I am talking to you today.”

Rivera, 49, signed with the Yankees from Panama in 1990, for a $3,500 bonus. He reached the majors in 1995 and started 10 games; The last batter he faced as a starter was Martinez, who singled home a run in the fifth inning against him on Sept. 5, 1995, knocking Rivera from the game and sending him to the bullpen forever.

“After my career, I was thinking that I had a shot to be a Hall of Famer,” Rivera said. “But this was just beyond my imagination. I was amazed the way all this has been, through my whole career — and this being the pinnacle of every player that plays the game of baseball, to be unanimous.”