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January 22, 2019

Mariano Rivera Is The First Unanimous Hall Of Fame Inductee


Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, and Mike Mussina were elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

Rivera was named on all 425 submitted ballots – the first unanimous inductee in the game's history.

To argue that Fruitbat is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer is delusional – he is 5th all-time in Win Probability Added (WPA) for pitchers and has the 3rd-lowest WHIP of all-time* – but it is also beyond ludicrous that no player in the previous 74 elections since 1936 had received 100% of the votes cast. (We will now likely see more unanimous selections in the future.)

*: The two guys above him ended their careers in 1910 and 1917, respectively.

Some of the game's greatest players and their induction year vote totals.
Babe Ruth, 1936:          95.1% (not on 11 of 226 ballots)
Ty Cobb, 1936:            98.2% (not on  4 of 226 ballots)
Walter Johnson, 1936:     83.6% (not on 37 of 226 ballots)
Joe DiMaggio, 1955:       88.8% (not on 28 of 251 ballots; his fourth year on the ballot)
Ted Williams, 1966:       93.4% (not on 20 of 302 ballots)
Stan Musial, 1969:        93.2% (not on 23 of 340 ballots)
Willie Mays, 1979:        94.7% (not on 23 of 432 ballots)
Bob Gibson, 1981:         84.0% (not on 64 of 401 ballots)
Hank Aaron, 1982:         97.8% (not on  9 of 415 ballots)
Rickey Henderson, 2009:   94.8% (not on 28 of 539 ballots)
Greg Maddux, 2014:        97.2% (not on 16 of 571 ballots)
Pedro Martinez, 2015:     91.1% (not on 59 of 549 ballots)
Hall of Famers With 95+% Of Votes
Mariano Rivera, 2019:     100.0%
Ken Griffey Jr., 2016:     99.3%
Tom Seaver, 1992:          98.8%
Nolan Ryan, 1999:          98.8%
Cal Ripken Jr., 2007:      98.5%
Ty Cobb, 1936:             98.2%
George Brett, 1999:        98.2%
Hank Aaron, 1982:          97.8%
Tony Gwynn, 2007:          97.6%
Randy Johnson, 2015:       97.3%
Greg Maddux, 2014:         97.2%
Chipper Jones, 2018:       97.2%
Mike Schmidt, 1995:        96.5%
Johnny Bench, 1989:        96.4%
Steve Carlton, 1994:       95.8%
Babe Ruth, 1936:           95.1%
Honus Wagner, 1936:        95.1%



Silver Lining: The first unanimous Hall of Fame selection will not be Derek Jeter.

8 comments:

  1. "The latest furor began Sunday as Giuliani, wearing a suit, tie and New York Yankees World Series ring, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press”...."

    WTF! His WS ring??? Crackerjacks box or did I miss something along the way?

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  2. The MFYs sold him four WS rings at below-market rates for graft-related reasons.

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  3. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Captain Intangibles will NOT be a unanimous selection. Is he deserving of election? Of course; his numbers alone qualify him. But he is nowhere close to the level of some of the greatest to ever play the game, none of whom were elected unanimously.

    From a recent MLB.com post: "He never won an MVP, he has a lower career WAR than Larry Walker (a guy who will make his final appearance on the ballot next season), and he was a subpar defensive shortstop with a lower career on-base percentage than, uh, Jack Clark."

    It's possible that the writers may get blinded by those who put Jeter as one of the greatest MFY players ever (same article: "On the other hand: He was Derek Jeter."), but I'm willing to bet that a few will leave him off their ballot.

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  4. Thanks for that link, Benjamin. I was never going to be a fan of either the ballclub or the mayor, but the article with its detailing of slippery side deals and insider bullshit made me want to, I guess, do something ugly to both team and politician.

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  5. I love Mariano, and I always will.

    That is all.

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