Dale Murphy was only named on 12.6 percent of the ballots. Murphy has two more chances before he's dropped from ballot.
photo by Tim Evearitt
NEW YORK -- Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday as part of the Class of 2011, ending a year of anxiety and trepidation for the pair of stellar players.
In his second year on the ballot, Fred McGriff was named on 17.9 percent of ballots, down from 21.5 percent in first year on ballot.
Mark McGwire fell from 23.7 percent last year to just 19.8 percent of ballots this year (115 votes).
Alomar was named on 90 percent of the ballots, or 523 of the record 581 cast, good for the third-highest vote total in history. Blyleven was named on 79.7 percent of the ballots, receiving 463 votes. A candidate must receive 75 percent of the vote to gain election. The threshold for election this year was 436 votes.
A year ago, the two made history, as Blyleven missed election by five votes and Alomar missed by eight on a ballot in which outfielder Andre Dawson was the only player elected by eligible members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
n 2010, Blyleven had 74.21 percent of the vote and Alomar 73.65 percent.
Alomar, the 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman, was in his second of 15 years on the ballot. Blyleven, the right-handed pitcher with a record of 287-250, was in his 14th year and running out of time.
Other significant names on this year's BBWAA ballot were first-timers Jeff Bagwell, Rafael Palmeiro, Larry Walker, Juan Gonzalez and Tino Martinez. Top returnees included Jack Morris, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Tim Raines and Lee Smith.
The remainder of this year's BBWAA ballot featured returnees Harold Baines, Don Mattingly, McGriff, McGwire, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker and Alan Trammell, and first-timers Carlos Baerga, Bret Boone, Kevin Brown, Marquis Grissom, Lenny Harris, Bobby Higginson, Charles Johnson, Al Leiter, Raul Mondesi, John Olerud, Kirk Rueter, Benito Santiago and B.J. Surhoff.
Hall of Fame history leaned heavily toward Alomar and Blyleven earning nods this year. Including the new electees, all 23 of the previous players to receive 70-74.9 percent of the vote in a given election were eventually granted admission to the Hall, 19 by the BBWAA the following year.
McGwire, who hit 583 homers, was the first "test case" for players who used or were suspected of using steroids. Palmeiro was the first star to be suspended for such use, although he continues to insist publicly that he took a tainted shot of the vitamin B-12 administered by Miguel Tejada -- his Baltimore teammate at the time.
Blyleven became the first full-time starting pitcher elected to the Hall since current Rangers president and all-time strikeout leader Nolan Ryan received 98.8 percent of the vote in 1999, his first year on the ballot.
Dennis Eckersley was elected in 2004 -- also his first year -- but he spent the first part of his career as a mediocre starter and the rest of it as a lights-out closer.
Blyleven had a 22-season career from 1970-92 with the Twins, Rangers, Pirates, Indians and Angels. He is 27th on the all-time list with 287, is fifth in career strikeouts with 3,701, and was a member of two World Series-winning teams: The 1979 "We Are Family" Pirates and the '87 Twins. Blyleven is 11th in games started with 685, ninth all-time with 60 shutouts and 13th all-time in innings pitched with 4,970. He's also 10th with his 250 losses.
Alomar almost became the 45th player to earn induction the first year he was on the ballot, and he clearly has the credentials after playing for seven teams: the Padres, Blue Jays, Orioles, Indians, Mets, White Sox and D-backs.
His career numbers of 2,724 hits, 210 homers, 1,134 RBIs, 474 stolen bases and a .300 average in 2,379 games stand up favorably to second basemen who have recently reached the Hall of Fame. Ryne Sandberg, elected by the writers in 2005 -- his third year on the ballot -- had 2,386 hits, 282 homers, 1,061 RBIs, 344 steals and a career average of .285 in 2,164 games.
________
Source: MLB.com