NEW YORK -- Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio were elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. The three pitchers were voted in on their first time on the ballot, while Biggio was selected in his third year.Johnson received 97.3 percent of the vote from the BBWAA, Martinez 91.1 percent, Smoltz 82.9 percent and Biggio 82.7 percent. Mike Piazza fell shy with 69.9 percent, and Jeff Bagwell received 55.7 percent. Seventy-five percent is needed to earn induction into Cooperstown.
Biggio -- the multiposition star who had 3,060 hits in 20 seasons, all with the Astros -- fell short by only two votes a year ago. This was his third year on the ballot. Save for Pete Rose (who is serving a lifetime suspension for betting on baseball and is not eligible for the Hall of Fame), Rafael Palmeiro (who was once suspended for performance-enhancing drugs and is no longer on the ballot) and Derek Jeter (who retired this past season with 3,465 hits and is eligible for the Hall in 2020), Biggio was the only player with 3,000 or more hits who had not been elected.Johnson, with 303 wins, was a certain first-ballot selection. His 4,875 whiffs are the most ever by a left-hander and second behind Nolan Ryan's all-time record (5,714). Johnson played for six teams, winning his 300th game for the Giants in 2009, pitching a perfect game for the D-backs in 2004 against the Braves and sharing the 2001 World Series MVP Award with teammate Curt Schilling as the D-backs beat the Yankees in seven games. He won five Cy Young Awards, one in the American League for Seattle in 1995, and four in a row in the National League for Arizona from 1999-2002.Martinez, another first-time candidate, pitched for five teams in 18 seasons, but his claim to fame centered on the seven seasons (1998-2004) he pitched for the Red Sox, for whom he had a remarkable 117-37 record. His career record was 219-100. Martinez won the Cy Young Award three times, twice while with Boston, including 1999, when he took the AL's pitching Triple Crown with a career-high 23 wins, a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts.Smoltz -- also on the ballot for the first time -- is set to join Bobby Cox, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine in the Hall. The three starting pitchers played together on the Braves under Cox's tutelage for 10 seasons. Smoltz had 213 wins and 154 saves, and he enjoyed the longest consecutive tenure with Atlanta of the trio of Hall of Fame pitchers. The right-hander played 20 seasons for a Braves team that went to the playoffs in 14 consecutive non-strike seasons from 1991-2005, won five NL pennants and won the 1995 World Series. Smoltz was a huge part of all that winning, posting a 15-4 mark in the postseason, four wins fewer than Yankees left-hander Andy Pettitte, who holds the playoff record with 19 victories.
Class of 2015 results
Name Votes (Pct.) Years on ballot
Randy Johnson 534 (97.3) 1
Pedro Martinez 500 (91.1) 1
John Smoltz 455 (82.9) 1
Craig Biggio 454 (82.7) 3
Mike Piazza 384 (69.9) 3
Jeff Bagwell 306 (55.7) 5
Tim Raines 302 (55) 8
Curt Schilling 215 (39.2) 3
Roger Clemens 206 (37.5) 3
Barry Bonds 202 (36.8) 3
Lee Smith 166 (30.2) 13
Edgar Martinez 148 (27) 6
Alan Trammell 138 (25.1) 14
Mike Mussina 135 (24.6) 2
Jeff Kent 77 (14) 2
Fred McGriff 71 (12.9) 9
Larry Walker 65 (11.8) 5
Gary Sheffield 64 (11.7) 1
Mark McGwire 55 (10) 9
Don Mattingly 50 (9.1) 15
Sammy Sosa 36 (6.6) 3
Nomar Garciaparra 30 (5.5) 1
Carlos Delgado 21 (3.8) 1
Troy Percival 4 (0.7) 1
Aaron Boone 2 (0.4) 1
Tom Gordon 2 (0.4) 1
Darin Erstad 1 (0.2) 1
Rich Aurilia 0 (0) 1
Tony Clark 0 (0) 1
Jermaine Dye 0 (0) 1
Cliff Floyd 0 (0) 1
Brian Giles 0 (0) 1
Eddie Guardado 0 (0) 1
Jason Schmidt 0 (0) 1
Barry M. Bloom/MLB.com
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