The 2015 induction class of the Baseball Hall of Fame was announced Tuesday afternoon and Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio are on their way to Cooperstown.
Players must be named on 75% of the Baseball Writers Association of America’s ballots to get in. Johnson was named on 97.3%, Martinez 91.1%, Smoltz 82.9% and Biggio 82.7% The highest total for a non-electee went to Mike Piazza who received 69.9%. The full results can be seen here.
This summer’s induction will mark the first time since 1955 that four players were selected by the baseball writers. That year Joe DiMaggio, Gabby Hartnett, Dazzy Vance and Ted Lyons made it in. Before that, you’d have to go back to the inaugural class of 1936, when Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson made it in.
Not making the cut: Jeff Bagwell, who only inched up from 54.3% last year to 55.7% this year. Tim Raines, who jumped from 46.1% to 55%, Curt Schilling, who went from 29.2% to 39.2%, Lee Smith, who received 30.2%, up from 29.9%, Edgar Martinez, who went up to 27% from 25.2%, Alan Trammell, who went up to 25.1% from 20.8% and Mike Mussina, who went to 24.6% from 20.3%.
The rest of the ballot of was either far down from those totals or were special cases such as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, each of whom gained a couple of percentage a points from last year but whom nonetheless are down at 37.5% and 36.8%, respectively. Surprisingly, neither Mark McGwire (10%) nor Sammy Sosa (6.6%) fell off the ballot, as many thought they might.
Players who fell off the ballot due to not having the requisite 5% to stay on: Carlos Delgado, Troy Percival, Aaron Boone, Tom Gordon, Darin Erstad, Rich Aurilia, Tony Clark, Jermaine Dye, Cliff Floyd, Brian Giles, Eddie Guardado and Jason Schmidt.
We’ll have continued updates on today’s Hall of Fame vote throughout the afternoon.