Hallbound...2016!!!

The votes are in...

• Ken Griffey, Jr. 437 (99.3%);
• Mike Piazza 365 (83.0%);
• Jeff Bagwell 315 (71.6%);
• Tim Raines 307 (69.8%);
• Trevor Hoffman 296 (67.3%);
• Curt Schilling 230 (52.3%);
• Roger Clemens 199 (45.2%);
• Barry Bonds 195 (44.3%);
• Edgar Martinez 191 (43.4%);
• Mike Mussina 189 (43.0%);
• Alan Trammell 180 (40.9%);
• Lee Smith 150 (34.1%);
• Fred McGriff 92 (20.9%);
• Jeff Kent 73 (16.6%);
• Larry Walker 68 (15.5%);
• Mark McGwire 54 (12.3%);
• Gary Sheffield 51 (11.6%);
• Billy Wagner 46 (10.5%);
• Sammy Sosa 31 (7.0%);
• Jim Edmonds 11 (2.5%);
• Nomar Garciaparra 8 (1.8%);
• Mike Sweeney 3 (0.7%);
• David Eckstein 2 (0.5%);
• Jason Kendall 2 (0.5%);
• Garret Anderson 1 (0.2%);
• Brad Ausmus 0;
• Luis Castillo 0;
• Troy Glaus 0;
• Mark Grudzielanek 0;
• Mike Hampton 0;
• Mike Lowell 0;
• Randy Winn 0;

On this year's ballot, a player needed to receive 330 votes to reach or exceed the 75% needed for induction. The new voting rules (writers can be inactive no more than 10 years) eliminated 100 plus voters, and also the years to be eligible to stay on the ballot were changed from 15 to 10 (Trammell, Smith, and Raines were grandfathered).

The players whose names are italicized will appear on next year's ballot, having surpassed the five percent rule to stay on (22 votes). Alan Trammell was on his fifteenth and final ballot. Mark McGwire was on his tenth and now final ballot. Both will now wait for the Veteran's Committee to decide their fates in the future.

According to the Baseball Hall of Fame website, 440 ballots were cast.

UPDATE: Wednesday, January 6, 2016, 06:15 pm CST

A few years ago, I wrote about an insert set called Topps Hallbound. That's where the two cards above came from. There are 15 subjects in this set. Of the 15, 11, including Griffey and Piazza, are now in the Hall of Fame.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama