
The National Baseball Hall of Fame added four new players to their museum on Tuesday night, with the National Baseball Writers of America voting in the quartet of Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, and Mike Mussina.
Rivera took the top prize of sorts, being the first player in the history of the game to be voted in unanimously, picking up votes from all 425 writers on his first year on the ballot.
Halladay (1st year), Martinez (10th), and Mussina (6th) also make their way into Cooperstown after receiving at least 75% of the vote. The first man on the outside looking in was former Red Sox and Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling, falling short with only 60.9% of the vote.
The big story pertaining to the Cubs comes from Sammy Sosa, who received just 8.5% of the vote. For a player that dominated the league for several years, it is wild to see him seemingly falling off the ballot seven years into his journey to Cooperstown.
Sosa’s combination of a borderline resume outside of a dominate peak and his strong steroid era association have forced him behind several other deserving names.
The longer the steroid names such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons hang around on the ballot, whether that is due to not being voted in or not dropping off the list, the more the ballot will continue to load up with incredibly talented and deserving players.
Other notable Cubs names featured on the ballot and their vote percentages:
Fred McGriff (played 2001-02): 39.8%
Manny Ramirez (Minor League player/coach 2017): 22.8%
Ted Lilly (played 2007-10): 0%
Juan Pierre (played 2006): 0%
