Mariano Rivera set one more record Tuesday night, five years after his retirement, and it might have been his most impressive.
The former Yankees closer became the first player unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rivera was named on 425 ballots cast by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
The closest any player ever came to a unanimous selection was Ken Griffey Jr. He was named on 99.2 percent (437 of 440) of the ballots in 2016.
Hall of Fame voting began in 1936.
Also elected were Roy Halladay (363 votes, 85.4 percent), Edgar Martinez (363, 85.4) and Mike Mussina (326, 76.7). They will be inducted July 21 at Cooperstown, N.Y. along with Harold Baines and Lee Smith, who were voted in by the Today’s Game Era committee last month.
Candidates needed 75 percent of the vote to be elected.
Rivera set the all-time saves record with 632 during his 19-year career from 1995-2013. He also had 42 more saves in the postseason while helping the Yankees win five World Series titles.
The Pirates are the only major league team against which Rivera never recorded a save. He faced them twice and got the win both times, pitching a combined four scoreless innings.
Barry Bonds, on the ballot for the seventh time, received 59.1 percent of the vote as he was named on 251 ballots. The all-time home run leader with 762, Bonds began his 22-year career by spending seven seasons with the Pirates from 1986-92, where he won the first two of his seven National League MVP awards in 1990 and 1992.
Bonds received his highest vote percentage yet. He rose to 56.4 percent last year from 36.2 in his first appearance in 2013.
Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, had a 203-104 record and a 3.38 ERA in 12 seasons with the Blue Jays and Phillies from 1998-2013. In 2010, he pitched a perfect game in the regular season then no-hit the Reds in the National League Division Series for just the second no-hitter in postseason history.
Back injuries caused Halladay to retire. He died at age 40 in 2017 when a small airplane he was piloting crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Halladay was 4-1 with a 1.04 ERA against the Pirates in seven starts.
Martinez, who spent his entire career with the Mariners from 1987-2004, gained election in his 10th and final year of eligibility. He is a two-time AL batting champion and hit a career .312 with 309 home runs and 1261 RBI, becoming the second player in the Hall whose majority of games was as a designated hitter, joining Frank Thomas.
Against the Pirates, Martinez had just three pinch-hitting appearances and went 1-for-1 with a double and two walks.
Mussina was 270-153 with a 3.68 ERA over 18 years from 1991-2008 with the Orioles and Yankees. At 39, he went 20-8 for the Yankees in his final season before retiring.
He started twice against the Pirates and was 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA.
Jason Bay, who was the NL Rookie Year in 2004 while playing for the Pirates, did not receive any votes in his first year of eligibility. He falls off the ballot for failing to reach the minimum five percent.
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