SAN DIEGO -- The Crime Dog is going to Cooperstown.
Longtime first baseman Fred McGriff was unanimously elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday night at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. He was elected via 16 person the Contemporary Era committee.
McGriff played 19 years in the majors from 1986-2004, accumulating a career .284 batting average, 493 home runs, 2,490 hits, 1,550 RBIs, 441 doubles and .886 OPS. He was a five-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger, All-Star Game Most Valuable Player and won a World Series with the 1995 Braves.
Despite those impressive stats, McGriff never caught on in the Baseball Writers Association of America voting, never cracking 40%. He did play in one of the most offensively-driven eras in baseball history, but still finished his career with a terrific 134 OPS+, which takes the league's output into consideration.
Each of the 16 people on the committee can vote for up to three people, with 12 votes needed to be enshrined. Don Mattingly came the next closest with eight votes, followed by Curt Schilling (seven votes) and Dale Murphy (six votes). Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Albert Belle each received fewer than four votes.
The boards for these committees does change, but this vote does not bode well for Schilling, Bonds or Clemens' chances to ever be elected into the Hall of Fame.
The 16-member Hall of Fame Board-appointed electorate comprised of Hall of Fame members Greg Maddux, Jack Morris, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Frank Thomas and Alan Trammell; major league executives Paul Beeston, Theo Epstein, Derrick Hall, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Dave St. Peter and Ken Williams; and veteran media members/historians Steve Hirdt, LaVelle Neal and Susan Slusser.
