(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza elected into Hall of Fame
Nederlands
 NEW YORK CITY, New York (USA) -
Centerfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. and catcher Mike Piazza were elected into the Hall of Fame.
This was announced on Wednesday-evening (January 6) by Jeff Idelson, President of the National Hall of Fame.
To be elected, candidates had to be named on 75 percent of the ballots submitted by the members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Griffey and Piazza will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on July 24.
Last year, four players were elected into the Hall of Fame, being Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smolz.
Two years ago, three players were elected, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas.
No players were elected in 2013.
With the two additions of this year, the record for a 3-year period was equaled.
The record of nine was set in 1936-1938, then tied in 1954-1956.
...Mike Piazza is interviewed by Grand Slam-webmaster...
...Marco Stoovelaar for De Telegraaf-newspaper after the final of...
...the 2012 European Championship in Rotterdam (Netherlands)...
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(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Ken Griffey, Jr. was eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time.
He played in 13 All Star Games, was named Most Valuable Player in 1997 and belted 630 homeruns in 22 seasons (1989-2010), playing for the Seattle Mariners (1989-1999; 2009-2010), Cincinnati Reds (2000-2008) and Chicago White Sox (2008).
Griffey, who was 40 when he retired, won 10 Gold Gloves and collected 2781 basehits, while scoring 1662 runs and batting in 1836.
There were 440 ballots submitted and Griffey's name was on 437 of them to give him a percentage of 99.3.
That set a new record.
Pitcher Tom Seaver hold the previous record for highest vote percentage (98.84), while Cal Ripken, Jr. was the highest amongst position players (98.53 percent).
This year, there were 15 players on the ballot for the first time.
Griffey became the 51st player to be elected in his first year of eligibility.
Mike Piazza fell only 28 votes short last year, but now had 83 percentage of the votes.
Piazza played in the Major League for 16 years (1992-2007) for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1992-1998), Florida Marlins (1998), New York Mets (1998-2005), San Diego Padres (2006) and Oakland A's (2007).
He was the Rookie of the Year in 1993 and appeared in 12 All Star Games.
Piazza hit 427 homeruns, including a record 396 as a catcher.
In his 16 seasons, he hit 2127 basehits, scored 1048 runs and batted in1335.
Piazza became the first catcher to be elected into the Hall of Fame since Gary Carter was chosen in 2003.
Jeff Bagwell, who played his entire career for the Houston Astros, finished with a percentage of 71.6, only 15 votes shy of being elected this year.
Following Bagwell as top-vote getters were Tim Raines (68.8 percentage), Trevor Hoffman (67.3), Curt Schilling (52.3), Roger Clemens (45.2) and Barry Bonds (44.3).
(January 6)
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