PERFECT HISTORY
Halladay, Martinez, Mussina join him
Mariano Rivera is the first unanimous selection to the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame.
NEW YORK — This honor was saved for the one and only Mariano Rivera.
Not Babe Ruth. Not Hank Aaron. Not Cy Young.
Not until “The Sandman” could everyone agree.
Rivera became baseball’s first unanimous Hall of Fame selection, elected Tuesday along with Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina and the late Roy Halladay. Rivera received all 425 votes in balloting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Ken Griffey Jr. held the mark for top percentage at 99.32 when he was on 437 of 440 ballots two years ago.
“Beyond my imagination,” Rivera said.
The quartet will be enshrined July 21 in Cooperstown along with Today’s Game Era Committee selections Harold Baines and Lee Smith.
Rivera is baseball’s career saves leader with 652. With a steady demeanor and a fearsome cut fastball, he won five World Series over 19 seasons with the New York Yankees. He was always at his best in October, getting 42 saves with a 0.70 ERA over 16 postseasons, including 11 saves in the World Series.
Halladay, an ace with the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, got 85.4 percent and will be the first posthumous inductee since Deacon White in 2013 and Ron Santo in 2012. Halladay died in November 2017 at 40 years old when an airplane he was flying crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
Martinez was a .312 hitter over 18 seasons with Seattle. He got 85.4 percent 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.
“I think the fact that Harold Baines and me got in this year is going to help the future of the DH for years to come,” Martinez said.
Mussina was a steady right-hander for the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles who went 270-153 with 2,813 strikeouts over 18 seasons. He received 76.7 percent, getting seven more votes than the 319 required for election.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens made gains but again fell short in their seventh times on the ballot. Bonds got 59.1 percent and Clemens 59.5, their cases muddied by steroid accusations.
Rivera grew up in Panama the son of a fisherman. He signed with New York in 1990, debuted in the majors as a 25-year-old in 1995 and a year later emerged as one of the game’s best relievers. Part of a core that included Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada, Rivera helped the Yankees win four World Series from 1996-2000 and another in 2009.
“The scouting report was the same every time,” Jeter wrote at The Players’ Tribune. “Mo knew he was going to throw that cutter. The guy at the plate knew he was going to throw that cutter. Fifty thousand plus at Yankee Stadium knew he was going to throw that cutter. And it wouldn’t matter.”
The Yankees didn’t even wait until Rivera’s final game to retire his No. 42 — he was the last player in the major leagues to wear that number, grandfathered to him when No. 42 was retired in honor of Jackie Robinson in 1997.
“Wearing No. 42, representing Jackie Robinson, I assume he was the first No. 42 elected,” Rivera said. “To be the last No. 42 elected to the Hall of Fame, and unanimously, is amazing.”
Like all the bats he sawed off with that dastardly cutter, Rivera shattered an 83year-old standard with his selection. Ruth, Young and the game’s other early stars fell short of unanimous election in the first ballot in 1936 because of a backlog of worthy candidates. With the bar set so high, some writers began leaving worthy firstyear players off their ballots.
Halladay won two Cy Young Awards, one each with Toronto and Philadelphia, before ending his career in 2013 at 36 years old due to back injuries.
The only other player elected on the first ballot posthumously was Christy Mathewson in 1936. Roberto Clemente was chosen in a special election in 1973 after dying in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972.
It was only the fourth time the writers voted in four players in one class — it also happened in 2015, 1955 and 1947.