Rodriguez, Bagwell, Raines make HOF; Bonds trending up.
Latest round of voting gives hope to controversial players such as Bonds and Clemens
Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez posted Hall of Fame numbers at a time when rampant steroid use took a funhouse mirror to the stat sheet.
Tim Raines bore the stigma of baseball’s original drug controversy, when he testified that he used cocaine during games in the early 1980s.
But time has a way of smoothing over all transgressions, both real and imagined. Even in a place as hallowed as Cooperstown.
And after enough time and consideration, Raines and Bagwell floated to the top of a Hall of Fame ballot that remained packed with more accomplished names. They received the requisite 75 percent for induction from voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, in results announced on Wednesday.
So did Rodriguez, a 13-time
Gold Glove winner and baseball’s all-time leader in games caught, who joined Johnny Bench as the only catchers in history to be elected on the first ballot.
Raines, Bagwell and Rodriguez will be inducted in a July ceremony July 30 in Cooperstown, N.Y., alongside two selections from the 16-person Today’s Game Committee: former Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and longtime executive John Schuerholz, the architect of World Series teams in Kansas City and Atlanta.
The election of Selig, albeit by a different and much smaller voting body, and his role as overseer of baseball during the performance-enhancing drug era, likely had an effect on vote totals for candidates more directly linked to steroid use.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the game’s only seven-time Most Valuable Player and seven-time Cy Young Award winner, received major gains after years of languishing in the 30-40 percent range on the ballot.
Bonds received 53.8 percent – the first time he has been listed on a majority of ballots. Clemens, who is more or less tied to Bonds in the minds of voters, saw a similar boost to 54.1 percent.
Longtime San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman, whose 601 saves rank second all-time to Mariano Rivera, continued to hover within a few votes of enshrinement. One year after receiving 67.3 percent as a first-year candidate, Hoffman received 74 percent – narrowly depriving San Diego of a celebratory moment within days of losing the NFL’s Chargers.
Hoffman stands an excellent chance at induction next year. So does outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, who debuted with a robust 71.7 percent.
Another candidate clearly building toward induction is former Seattle Mariners designated hitter Edgar Martinez, who received 58.6 percent after getting 43.4 percent and 27 percent the previous two years.
Raines received the push he needed in his 10th and final year of eligibility on the writers’ ballot. He garnered 86 percent, easily picking up the 20 votes by which he fell short a year ago.
Raines spent a career reading pitchers and sprinting for second base the moment they twirled home. This time, he wasn’t sure how to get a read.
“Last night was probably the worst night I’ve had out of the 10 years,” Raines said on a conference call. “I knew I was close, but I wasn’t sure. It’s a situation where everything is out of your control. You have to wait until the minute when you’re going to get the phone call or not get the phone call.
“It’s the most excited I’ve been in my baseball career, knowing what was about to happen. I just embrace it with my family. It’s very emotional and very exciting.”
Widely viewed as the second greatest leadoff hitter in modern history, Raines was obscured by both time – his career mostly overlapped with the brilliant Rickey Henderson – and place, as he starred on Montreal’s remote artificial turf.
Raines, 57, ranks fifth all time with 808 stolen bases, and he is the most efficient prolific theft artist in modern history. His 84.7 percent success rate ranks highest among all 74 major league players who have stolen at least 400 bases.
But Raines didn’t get the kind of quick jump among Hall of Fame voters that he often used to bedevil opposing pitchers. Raines received just 24.3 percent in his initial year on the ballot in 2008 and appeared destined to crest no higher than near 50 percent before a dogged campaign led by the analytics community began to gain traction with the electorate.
A seven-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion, Raines won a batting title in 1986 (.334). He was his most dominant the following season, when he led the National League with 123 runs scored despite missing the first month of the season due to a contract stalemate that became a symbol of a shady collusion era when owners banded together in an effort to suppress free-agent salaries. (Raines received no offers even though he had just won a batting crown, and had to limp back to Montreal for a minimal raise.)
Raines’ candidacy also might have been slow to generate momentum because of his involvement in the Pittsburgh Drug Trials, when he confessed to being a habitual cocaine user for a time in the early 1980s. Raines, who has been clean and sober for many years, once testified that he slid headfirst so as not to break vials of drugs that he kept in his back pocket.
A different drug era caused a perception problem for Bagwell, and although no proof exists that he used steroids to boost his numbers, his chiseled forearms and battering-ram physique led to a whisper campaign that was loud enough to keep him out until the seventh ballot.
A crouching menace in the batter’s box, Bagwell, a one-time Red Sox prospect, wore a Houston Astros uniform over the entirety of a career that was cut short after 15 seasons because of an arthritic right shoulder. That injury kept him from compiling numbers that would have made him a more reflexive Hall of Famer, and he made just four All-Star teams.
But he also finished with 449 home runs, won the NL MVP award in 1994 and posted rate stats – his WAR, or wins above replacement, is second to Albert Pujols among first basemen since World War II – that hint at an elite combination of power and on-base skills that stack up among the game’s greats.
Bagwell, 46, never tested positive nor was he mentioned in the Mitchell Report, baseball’s attempt at a comprehensive review of transgressors in the steroid era. But the suspicions were enough to tamp down his candidacy before he surged to 71.6 percent last year.
Last year’s election of Mike Piazza, another player linked by innuendo to steroid use, likely softened some of the Bagwell holdouts as he easily gained the 12 votes he needed for enshrinement while receiving 86.2 percent.
Bagwell, who was traveling to the airport as he spoke on a conference call, sounded more confused than enthusiastic as he spoke with reporters.
“It’s kind of weird, man,” he said. “I’m still kind of in shock. I’m not really sure where I’m at. I’m exited, I’m happy. It’s just very cool, I guess.”
Rodriguez, 45, becomes the first player elected to the Hall of Fame who played the majority of his career with the Texas Rangers. His election might have come as a mild surprise, if only because Jose Canseco accused him of steroid use in his book. The player known as “Pudge” also showed up to spring training looking a lot thinner after the league began penalizing for positive steroid tests.
But voters recognized his longevity, durability and his combination of defensive skills that could neutralize an opponent’s running game. Rodriguez celebrated the fact that he will join Roberto Clemente, Roberto Alomar and former Giant Orlando Cepeda as Puerto Rican natives in the Hall of Fame.
Perhaps no moment in Rodriguez’s career stands as powerful as the play he made in an NL Division Series in 2003, when J.T. Snow crashed into him at home plate. Rodriguez held onto the ball and held it aloft after recording the final out that sent the Florida Marlins past a 100-win Giants team.
“To me, that is one of the best plays I’ve made in my career,” Rodriguez said. “And to be honest, it still hurts a little bit.”