Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. made an emphatic entrance into baseball’s hall of fame Tuesday afternoon, garnering the first and second highest vote totals all-time, respectively.
Gwynn, a member of the San Diego Padres for all of his 20-year career, made his name with his steady hitting. During his two decades in the big leagues, Gwynn collected eight batting titles, 3,141 hits and a career average of .338, good for 17th all-time. His mark of .394 during the strike-shortened 1994 season ranks as the highest since Ted Williams notched a .408 mark during the 1941 campaign.
Lost behind Gwynn’s prowess at the plate was his far above average defense in right field. Gwynn collected five Gold Gloves during his career, racked up 160 outfield assists and notched a stellar .987 fielding percentage. Gwynn’s name appeared on 97.6 percent of the ballots, ranking him seventh all-time in that category.
Besides breaking Lou Gehrig’s long-standing consecutive games played streak with 2,632 contests in a row, Ripken played a fatherly role to baseball’s current generation of bigger, more powerful shortstops. Before him, shortstops were just that, short. When Ripken and his 6-foot-4-inch, 225-pound frame landed upon the scene however, things changed. The days of Appling, Aparicio and Reese were long gone, replaced by names like Jeter, Rodriguez, Garciaparra and Tejada.
Notably absent from this year’s class was former Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire, who received a meager 23.5 percent of the ballot, falling well short of the 75 percent needed for enshrinement. One of the reasons behind McGwire, who holds the record for second-most home runs in one season with 70 during the 1998 season, being left out in his first chance for election is the cloud of suspicion following the revelation that he took Androstendione, a performance-enhancing drug during his record-breaking season. Although the substance was not banned by Major League Baseball in 1998, a feeling of betrayal still hangs over the record and over McGwire’s career as a whole, causing many voters to omit McGwire’s name from their ballots.
Coming close this time, but still falling short of induction into Cooperstown, were former closer Rich “Goose” Gossage and former outfielders Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. Gossage, who pitched for nine teams in his 22-year career, tallied 310 saves while sporting a lifetime earned run average just north of three. Rice and Dawson finished with a combined 810 homers in their careers.
The induction ceremony for Ripken and Gwynn will take place in Cooperstown, New York on July 29.