Walker awaits call from the Hall

Be it ecstasy or agony, the long wait is nearly over for Larry Walker.

Tuesday afternoon, the former Rockies all-star right fielder will find out if he’s been elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Indications are that the vote will be extremely close, that Walker will either barely clear the 75% vote total needed or come up achingly short in his 10th and final year on the ballot.

Walker’s fate rests in the hands of the estimated 412 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America who are eligible to vote. Based on results revealed through Monday via the Baseball Hall of Fame Vote Tracker, Walker had received a yes vote of 85.0%. However, only 193 ballots had been made public, leaving an estimated 219 votes unknown. In order to get elected, Walker will need to garner 65.9% of the unknown votes. That’s a tall order.

The votes for this year’s Hall will be announced starting at 4 p.m. on the MLB Network, with a live stream at MLB.com.

Two weeks ago, Ryan Thibodaux, who runs the Baseball Hall of Fame Vote Tracker, predicted that Walker would receive between 74% to 76% of the vote. That prediction still looks accurate.

“Walker was on 65.9% of the 232 preresults public ballots last year,” Thibodaux explained. “His final result was 54.6%, so he fell 11.3% to the true finish.”

Walker played the bulk of his 17-year career in Colorado, but also played for the Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals. He was a five-time all-star, seven-time Gold Glove winner and the 1997 National League MVP. He played his final game Oct. 2, 2005, as a member of the Cardinals.

If Walker is not elected, he could get another shot relatively soon. The Hall of Fame has four separate veteran’s era committees vote on a rotating basis, and the “Today’s Game” era — which considers contributions from 1988 to the present — is scheduled to convene in the fall of 2021 for inclusion in the Class of ’22. Walker could make it to Cooperstown via that path.

Jeter could be unanimous. When it comes to unanimous picks for baseball’s Hall of Fame, Derek Jeter quite appropriately has the chance to be No. 2 today.

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera became the first player to appear on every ballot when he swept 425 votes in last year’s election.