The sixth time was the charm for Scott Rolen.
On Tuesday, the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced that Rolen had been elected, receiving 76.3% of the vote from eligible members of the Baseball Writer Association of America. He cleared the threshold for enshrinement by five votes.
Rolen is one of the best third basemen in the history of the sport, accumulating eight Gold Gloves, seven All-Star nods, a Silver Slugger, a Rookie of the Year while winning a World Series with the Cardinals in 2006. His 70.1 career WAR is ninth all-time among third basemen, going by Baseball Reference's measure.
Over his 17 years in the majors, Rolen hit .281 with 2,077 hits, 316 home runs, 1,287 RBIs, an .855 OPS and a 122 OPS+.
He will join Fred McGriff, who was elected via the Contemporary Era committee at the Winter Meetings, as this year's Hall of Fame class.
Just missing the cut for enshrinement were first baseman Todd Helton and left-handed closer Billy Wagner. Helton fell shy by 11 votes and finished with 72.2% of the vote in his fifth year of the ballot. Wagner finished with 68.1% in his eighth year. While they did not get the call this year, they seem to be in good position to one day be elected.
Second baseman Jeff Kent received 46.5% of the vote in his 10th and final year on the ballot. His future Hall of Fame chances are now in the hands of the committees.
Other notable players on this year's ballot include Andruw Jones (58.1% of the vote), Gary Sheffield (55%), Carlos Beltrán (46.5%) and Álex Rodríguez (35.7%).
The full results of the writers can be found here.
Our Dejan Kovacevic had a ballot and revealed it a week ago in a column. You can read it here.
