For the first time in 60 years, writers covering the game of American baseball have voted four baseball players to the Hall of Fame in one year.
On January 6, members of the Baseball Writers Association of America elevated Randy ‘Big Unit’ Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio to the sport’s Hall of Fame roster.
Of the four members of Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2015, Johnson, Martinez, and Smoltz all made it on their first induction attempt. Biggio, on the other hand, did it after three tries making his induction extra special, reports Fox News.
Randy ‘Big Unit’ Johnson, a pitcher for the New York Giants, got 534 of the possible 549 votes that earned for him the first slot in the Hall of Fame. His 97.3 percentage vote from veteran baseball writers was actually the eighth highest in the history of voting for the sport’s Hall of Fame roster.
Johnson is a five-time Cy Young winner with a total of 303 victories tucked in his belt and 4,875 strikeouts.
Although he did not win a title with the Giants, he nonetheless paved the way for the team’s string of three titles in the seasons that follow, reports the SF Gate.
Coming in at close second in the voting is Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox who got 500 votes.
A three-time Cy Yong winner, Martinez helped the Red Sox win its first World Series in 2004 after 86 years. He led the major leagues in ERA five times and has a respectable 219-100 win-loss career record with 3,154 strike outs.
John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves got 455 votes. He joins Braves teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine to the Baseball Hall of Fame roster, who were inducted last year, along with slugger Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox.
The 1996 Cy Young winner of the National League, Smoltz is the only pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves. He has a career record of 213-155, with 154 saves.
Bringing in the rear is Craig Biggio who got 454 votes, just one vote short of Smoltz. He was previously nominated to the Baseball Hall of Fame two times but fell short in the votes.
During his first try, he got only 68.2% of the votes from the writers. A nominee needs to get at least 75% of the votes. On his second nomination last year, he nearly made it but fell just hairline short in the voting with 74.8%. This year, he went over the hump by getting 42 votes more on top of the 75% minimum requirement.
Biggio played 20 seasons with the Houston Astros and piled up 3,060 hits.
The four will be officially inducted in Cooperstown in New York on July 26, 2015. Their selection is the first since 1955 when baseball writers voted Joe DiMaggio, Gabby Hartnett, Ted Lyons and Dazzy Vance to the Hall of Fame roster.