The most dominant reliever in baseball history is among those with a chance to make it to Cooperstown next summer.
Mariano Rivera leads the newcomers to the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019, which was released Monday. His former Yankees teammate Andy Pettitte and the late Blue Jays and Phillies ace Roy Halladay also are eligible for the first time.
Among the holdovers who didn’t make the cut last year are Edgar Martinez, who needs to garner about 5 percent more of the vote to make it in in his final year of eligibility, and Mike Mussina, who polled at 63.5 percent with 75 percent needed for induction.
More than 400 voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America are eligible to cast ballots this year after 422 voted last year. The writers’ choices for the Class of 2019 will be announced Jan. 22.
For sure, my non-existent ballot would contain Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens. Curt Schilling has the numbers to be in the Hall, and if he makes it he will deserve it, but screw that guy. I love Andy Pettite and am rooting for him, but he falls a bit short right now. I reserve the right to change my mind about him. Others, I’ll wait and see what Jay Jaffe has to say. Who’s on your ballot for the Hall? For more on the nominees, see MLB.com and the HoF itself.
I wonder what the Venn diagram of voters who select Schilling and voters who select Bonds would look like.
I’m imagining a significant lack of overlap
I think the writers will eliminate (or undervote) the guys suspected of, or freely admitted to, PEDs… Bonds, Clements, Pettite, and the a**holes, like Shilling, are a no go. Rivera will squeak in, but Mussina and Martinez ? Mussina – 33rd and 66th and 19th and 23rd in this and that, Nah… Martinez was a DH most of his career. Halladay will be a sentimental appointee.