Ripken, Gwynn Elected To The Hall Of Fame

Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn were overwhelmingly elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame this afternoon, with both getting named on over 98% of all the ballots cast by the BBWAA. (I'm amazed that ANYONE would leave either player off the ballot. One brain surgeon sent in an empty ballot to protest the current state of baseball. Whatever.) Congratulations to both, as they are both first-class guys and well-deserving of baseball immortality.

But the big news of the day was that Mark McGwire was named on just 23% of all ballots. He is clearly paying the price for his ill-advised "testimony" before Congress in 2005. While a low vote count doesn't mean he'll never get in, I wouldn't bet on McGwire ever get enshrined. There is too much doubt out there over his possible guilt in using steroids, and he's done absolutely nothing to dissuade the voters or even the fans. Right now, it seems as though he doesn't care, and just wants to be left alone. So be it.

His fellow "Bash Brother," Jose Canseco, got 6 votes in his first (and only) year of eligibility. Anyone getting less than 5% of the vote will no longer be considered by the BBWAA.

Rich Gossage finished third, just 21 votes short of election. Jim Rice finished fourth, with 64% of the vote. They are both disappointed for sure, but since there is no compelling new candidate in 2008, their chances for election then should be much better.

Here is the complete Hall of Fame voting results:

2007 BBWAA Hall of Fame Voting Results
Candidate-- Votes-- % of Votes
Cal Ripken Jr. --537-- 98.5
Tony Gwynn 532-- 97.6
Rich Gossage-- 388-- 71.2
Jim Rice-- 346-- 63.5
Andre Dawson-- 309-- 56.7
Bert Blyleven-- 260-- 47.7
Lee Smith-- 217-- 39.8
Jack Morris-- 202-- 37.1
Mark McGwire-- 128-- 23.5
Tommy John-- 125-- 22.9
Steve Garvey-- 115-- 21.1
Dave Concepcion-- 74-- 13.6
Alan Trammell-- 73-- 13.4
Dave Parker-- 62-- 11.4
Don Mattingly-- 54-- 9.9
Dale Murphy-- 50-- 9.2
Harold Baines-- 29-- 5.3
Orel Hershiser-- 24-- 4.4
Albert Belle-- 19-- 3.5
Paul O'Neill-- 12-- 2.2
Bret Saberhagen-- 7 --1.3
Jose Canseco-- 6-- 1.1
Tony Fernandez-- 4-- 0.7
Dante Bichette-- 3-- 0.6
Eric Davis-- 3-- 0.6
Bobby Bonilla-- 2-- 0.4
Ken Caminiti-- 2-- 0.4
Jay Buhner-- 1-- 0.2
Scott Brosius-- 0-- 0.0
Wally Joyner-- 0-- 0.0
Devon White-- 0-- 0.0
Bobby Witt-- 0-- 0.0

With all the controversy over McGwire, what I really want to know is this: who are the three guys who actually think Dante Bichette is a Hall of Famer?

I guess they must be his drinking buddies from his Colorado days.