Three to join baseball’s hall
Pudge in on first try; Raines, Bagwell’s long waits are over.
NEW YORK — Bags, Rock and Pudge are heading to Cooperstown.
Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Wednesday, earning the honor as Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero fell just short of the necessary 75 percent.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, their careers tainted by allegations of steroids use, were passed over for the fifth consecutive year by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, but each received a majority of votes for the first time. Bagwell
On the ballot for the seventh time after falling 15 votes short last year, Bagwell appeared on 381 of 442 ballots for 86.2 percent. Players needed 332 votes this year.
“Anxiety was very, very high,” Bagwell said. “It’s a weird thing to be a Hall of
Famer. I wrote it on a ball tonight. It was kind of crazy, so it was cool.”
In his 10th and final year of eligibility, Raines was at 380 votes (86 percent). He was just the fifth player elected
in his final year of eligibility after Red Ruffing (1967), Joe Medwick (1968), Ralph Kiner (1975) and Jim Rice (2009).
“Last night was probably the worst night I’ve had out of
the 10 years,” Raines said. “I knew I was close, but I wasn’t sure.”
Raines started at 24.3 percent in 2008 and jumped from 55 percent in 2015 to 69.8 percent last year. He said modern metrics boosted his chances from days when voters considered primarily whether players had 3,000 hits, 500 home runs or 300 victories.
“I think social media played a big role,” he said. “You’ve got these new stats. You’ve got WAR. You’ve got all this stuff. People really didn’t look at it back in the day. The more they looked, the better it turned out for me.”
Rodriguez, at 45 the youngest current Hall member, received 336 votes (76 percent).
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping for three days,” he said.
Rodriguez, the 52nd player elected in his first year of eligibility, joins Johnny Bench in 1989 as the only catchers voted in on their first ballot.
“Johnny Bench was my favorite player growing up,” Pudge said.
Hoffman was five votes short and Guerrero 15 shy.
“Falling short of this class is disappointing,” Hoffman said in a statement. “I am truly humbled to have come so close. I hope to one day soon share a Hall of Fame celebration with my family, friends, teammates and all of San Diego.”
Edgar Martinez was next at 58.6 percent, followed by Clemens at 54.1 percent, Bonds at 53.8 percent, Mike Mussina at 51.8 percent, Curt Schilling at 45 percent, Lee Smith at 34.2 percent and Manny Ramirez at 23.8 percent.
Players will be inducted July 30 during ceremonies at Cooperstown. They will join former commissioner Bud Selig and retired Kansas City and Atlanta executive John
Schuerholz, who were elected last month by a veterans committee.
Bagwell was a four-time All-Star for Houston, finishing with a .297 batting average, 401 home runs and 1,401 RBI. Among 220 Hall of Fame players, he is the 50th whose entire big league career was with one club.
Raines, fifth in career stolen bases, was a seven-time All-Star and the 1986 NL batting champion who compiled a .294 average and .385 onbase percentage. He spent 13 of 23 big league seasons with the Montreal Expos — who left Canada to become the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season — and joins Andre Dawson and Gary Carter as the only players to enter the Hall representing the Expos.
Rodriguez, a 14-time All-Star who hit .296 with 311 home runs and 1,332 RBI, was never disciplined for PEDs, but former Texas teammate Jose Canseco alleged in a 2005 book that he injected the catcher with steroids. Asked whether he was on the list of players who allegedly tested positive for steroids during baseball’s 2003 survey, Rodriguez said in 2009: “Only God knows.”
Rodriguez displaced Pedro Martinez as the youngest of the record 74 living Hall members.
Bonds, a seven-time MVP who holds the season and career home run records, received 36.2 percent in 2013 and jumped from 44.3 percent last year. Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, rose from 45.2 percent last year.
“Barry Bonds was the best player I played against in my entire life,” Bagwell said.
A 12-time All-Star on the ballot for the first time, Ramirez was twice suspended for violating baseball’s drug agreement. He helped the Boston Red Sox win World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, and he hit .312 with 555 home runs and 1,831 RBI in 19 big league seasons.