The next stop for Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio is Cooperstown.
The four former players were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame Tuesday and will be officially enshrined July 26. It marks the first time since the 1955 induction of Joe DiMaggio, Gabby Hartnett, Ted Lyons and Dazzy Vance that four players received the necessary 75 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Martinez won three Cy Young Awards and retired after 18 seasons with a 2.93 ERA and a 219-100 record. His prime came at a time that offences around baseball were exploding, but he still dominated lineups in both leagues. Martinez’s 1999 and 2000 seasons were among the best in MLB history; he posted a 2.07 ERA (243 ERA+) in 1999 with 313 strikeouts then followed that up with a 1.74 ERA (291 ERA+) and 284 strikeouts, winning the Cy Young Award both seasons. In 2004, Martinez helped the Boston Red Sox end their World Series drought.
Johnson won five Cy Young Awards, including four in a row from 1999-2002 and he joined baseball’s 300-win club in his final season. The 6-foot-10 left-hander finished his career with a 3.29 ERA and a 303-166 record in 22 seasons. Only Nolan Ryan has more strikeouts than Johnson’s 4,875. Remarkably, the ‘Big Unit’ struggled with command issues through his twenties, leading the league in walks three consecutive times. But he harnessed his devastating fastball-slider combination to become one of the best left-handers of all-time and lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to their first ever World Series title in 2001.
Smoltz won the World Series with the 1995 Atlanta Braves and earned the NL Cy Young the following season. He retired after 21 seasons with a 213-155 record, a 3.33 ERA and 3,084 strikeouts. He also spent three-plus seasons as a closer, saving 154 games. Longtime Braves teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were inducted in 2014 along with former Atlanta manager Bobby Cox.
Biggio batted .281/.363/.433 with 3,060 hits over the course of a 20-year career with the Houston Astros. After debuting as a catcher, Biggio spent the majority of his career at second base, where he provided power and speed. Not only did he steal 414 career bases and hit 291 career home runs, he retired with 668 doubles, including two seasons with 50 or more. While the Astros didn’t win a World Series with Biggio, he helped the franchise win its first NL pennant in 2005.
Johnson received 97.3 percent of the vote, the eighth-highest percentage of all-time. Martinez obtained 91.1 percent of the vote while Smoltz appeared on 82.9 percent of ballots and Biggio got 82.7 percent support.
Many other eligible players will have to wait at least one more year. Mike Piazza (69.9 percent), Jeff Bagwell (55.7 percent), Tim Raines (55 percent), Curt Schilling (39.2 percent), Roger Clemens (37.5 percent) and Barry Bonds (36.8 percent) were named on fewer than 75 percent of the 2015 ballots.
Carlos Delgado obtained 3.8 percent of the vote, meaning he’s no longer eligible to be elected into the Hall of Fame. Each player whose name appears on 75 percent of ballots gets inducted, and players must get 5.0 percent of the vote to stay on the ballot.
The 2016 ballot will include newcomers such as Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman plus holdovers from 2015.
