(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Fred McGriff elected into Baseball Hall of Fame
Nederlands
 SAN DIEGO, California (USA) -
First baseman Fred McGriff, who played in 19 Major League-seasons for six clubs, was unanimously elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday-evening (December 4).
The announcement was made on the first day of the annual Winter Meetings, which are held this time in San Diego.
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...Baseball-card of Fred McGriff... |
Each year in January, the Base Ball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) announces the votes for players given by its members during the Hall of Fame-elections.
The first players were elected in 1936.
Players become eligible for election five years after they have retired (which was established in 1954).
Players who receive 75% of the votes are elected into the Hall of Fame.
Players with less than five percent are dropped from the ballots and are not eligible anymore for election.
The others (with five percent or more votes) remain eligible for future elections for a maximum period of ten years (which used to be fifteen through 2014).
When a player is not elected in this period, he is dropped from the list.
Thereafter, some of these 'overlooked' players can become a candidate for election to be considered by the so-called Veterans Committee, which came together for the first time in 1953.
Originally, that Committee voted for managers, umpires, executives and players, who had long been retired.
Following several changes since 2001, this Committee was able to consider players who were not listed anymore on the 'normal' ballots.
In 2010, the Veterans Committee was divided into three Subcommittees: Pre-Integration Era (1871-1946), Golden Era (1947-1972) and Expansion Era (1973 and later).
In 2016, mores chances (and new names) were made and there were now four Subcommittees: Early Baseball (1871-1949), Golden Days (1950-1969), Modern Baseball (1970-1987) and Today's Game (1988-present).
In April of this year, the most recent change was made, as these four eras were divided into two eras: the Contemporary Baseball Era (1980-present) and the Classic Baseball Era (prior to 1980).
These two new Subcommittees come together every three years with two selections for the Comtemporary Era, one year for players, the following year for Managers, Executives and Umpires.
In the voting held on Sunday, players were considered from the Contemporary Era, next year non-players from this era will be considered and in 2024, candidates from the Classic Baseball Era will be considered.
Besides Fred McGriff, seven other players were candidate in Sunday's election, being Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling.
The Committee consisted of sixteen persons, including six Hall of Famers, seven Executives and three Media/Historians.
To be elected, the players needed 75% of the votes.
McGriff got votes from all sixteen members and was elected unanimously.
Mattingly finished second with eight votes (50%), Schilling was third with seven and Murphy fourth with six votes.
Through the years, Bonds, Clemens and Palmeiro, who all have great statistics and a long career, didn't got enough votes in the regular elections.
The same happened now.
As the three are linked to performance-enhancing drug use, they fail to get enough votes each time.
Through this season, Mattingly was the Manager of Miami Marlins (since 2016).
On November 30, he was named Bench Coach of Toronto Blue Jays for next season.
Fred McGriff will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 23 next year together with any new players selected during the regular election on January 24.
Fred McGriff played in 19 Major League-seasons (1986-2004) for Toronto Blue Jays (1986-1990), San Diego Padres (1991-1993), Atlanta Braves (1993-1997), Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998-2001), Chicago Cubs (2001-2002), Los Angeles Dodgers (2003) and again Tampa Bay (2004).
In his 19 seasons, McGriff played in 2,460 games and collected 2,490 basehits.
Amongst them were 493 homeruns, which ties him with legendary Lou Gehrig (also a first baseman and a Hall of Famer).
Nicknamed 'Crime Dog' (after a cartoon dog named McGruff), McGriff hit 30 or more homeruns in ten seasons, doing so for five different teams.
He was the Homerun-leader twice (1989, 1992), scored 1,349 runs, batted in 1,550 runs and played in five All Star Games.
In 1994, McGriff was named Most Valuable Player of the All Star Game.
McGriff won the World Series in 1995 with Atlanta Braves.
While playing for Atlanta, McGriff was teammate of Curaçao-born outfielder Andruw Jones in 1996 and 1997.
During the 1997 season, McGriff also played together with another player from Curaçao, Randall Simon.
In 2004, both McGriff and Simon played for Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but never at the same moment.
McGriff was released in July of that year, Simon joined tht team in August, then also was releases a month later.
McGriff was first eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2010, but in his ten years of eligibility (through 2019), the highest total of votes he got was 39,8% in 2019.
(December 5)
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