(Getty)
This year’s Major League Baseball Hall of Fame election results have been announced and Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio have been elected into the Hall of Fame.
Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio have been elected to the Hall of Fame. It’s the biggest BBWAA class since 1955.
Here was the full list for 2015’s Hall of Fame Voting:
Player Votes 2015% 2014%
Players who were inducted in 2015
Randy Johnson: 534, 97.3%, 1st Year
Pedro Martinez: 500, 91.1%, 1st Year
John Smoltz: 455, 82.9%, 1st Year
Craig Biggio: 454, 82.7%, 74.8%
Less than 75% of vote, but still on ballot
Mike Piazza: 384, 69.9%, 62.2%
Jeff Bagwell: 306, 55.7%, 54.3%
Tim Raines: 302, 55.0%, 46.1%
Curt Schilling: 215, 39.2%, 29.2%
Roger Clemens: 206, 37.5%, 35.4%
Barry Bonds: 202, 36.8%, 34.7%
Lee Smith: 166, 30.2%, 29.9%
Edgar Martinez: 148, 27.0%, 25.2%
Alan Trammell: 138, 25.1% 20.8%
Mike Mussina: 135, 24.6%, 20.3%
Jeff Kent: 77, 14.0%, 15.2%
Fred McGriff: 71, 12.9%, 11.7%
Larry Walker: 65, 11.8%, 10.2%
Gary Sheffield: 64, 11.7%, 1st Year
Mark McGwire: 55, 10.0%, 11.0%
Sammy Sosa: 36, 6.6%, 7.2%
Nomar Garciaparra: 30, 5.5%, 1st Year
15 years on ballot, will not be on next year’s ballot
Don Mattingly: 50, 9.1%, 8.2%
Less than 5%, will not be on next year’s ballot
Carlos Delgado: 21, 3.8%, 1st Year
Troy Percival: 4, 0.7%, 1st Year
Aaron Boone: 2, 0.4%, 1st Year
Tom Gordon: 2, 0.4%, 1st Year
Darin Erstad: 1, 0.2%, 1st Year
Brian Giles: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
Jason Schmidt: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
Cliff Floyd: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
Jermaine Dye: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
Rich Aurilia: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
Tony Clark: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
Eddie Guardado: 0, 0.0%, 1st Year
This year’s ballot continues to receive an influx from recently retired players who dominated the 1990s and 2000s.
This year’s biggest snub is Mike Piazza, who only received 69.9% of the vote despite an increase in his overall percentage from last year. Piazza is regarded as the best hitting catcher of all-time, and has the most home runs for a catcher in major league history.
384 Mike Piazza 69.9%
306 Jeff Bagwell 55.7%
302 Tim Raines 55.0%
215 Curt Schilling 39.2%
206 Roger Clemens 37.5%
202 Barry Bonds 36.8%
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens once again received a low percentage of the votes due to their connection with performance-enhancing drugs.
Hall of Fame voting is done by the Baseball Writer’s Association of America (BBWAA). In order for a player to be eligible for Hall of Fame voting, he must be five years removed from the last time he played. In order for a player to be inducted, he must earn, at least, 75% of the total vote. The maximum amount of time a player can spend on the ballot is 10 years. If a player isn’t elected in 10 years, he is removed from the eligible ballot.
In 2014’s Hall of Fame Voting, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas were inducted into Cooperstown. Maddux received 97.2% of the vote, Glavine received 91.9% of the vote and Thomas received 83.7% of the vote. Craig Biggio fell just short last year with 74.8% of the vote. Former pitcher Jack Morris, once again, fell short of the vote in his final year of eligibility.
Tom Seaver currently holds the record for highest percentage of the total vote at 98.8%.
It is unlikely a majority of that list gets in. The results were announced at 2 p.m. Eastern on January 6.
