All eyes turned towards Cooperstown yesterday as the votes were tallied and three new members were announced as the Hall of Fame class of 2017: Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez.  Bagwell, in his seventh year of eligibility, garnered 86.2% of the vote.  Raines, in his last year on the ballot, scored 86% of the vote.  Rodriguez, a surprise based on publicly released ballots, surpassed the necessary 75% by 4 votes in his first year of eligibility.

Six others tallied greater than 50% of the vote, led by Trevor Hoffman, who fell a mere 5 votes shy of election, and Vladimir Guerrero, who was 15 votes short.  Following Edgar Martinez, who raised his total to 58.6%, were Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, who both surpassed 50% for the first time and saw enough increased support to lead one to believe the will eventually be voted in.  Mike Mussina was the final player to finish above 50%, coming in at 51.8%.

Lee Smith garnered 34.2% of the vote in his final time on the ballot.  Jorge Posada and Magglio Ordonez led the 16 first timers who failed to get 5% and will now fall off the ballot.

As for the newest Hall of Famers, I’ve seen Rodriguez play 19 times, mostly during his stint with the Tigers towards the end of his career. I only saw Bagwell play 13 times over the course of his career, followed by 9 career games for Raines.

Jeff Bagwell’s numbers in games I’ve attended were:

HOF Career Batting

BA	At Bats	Runs	Hits	RBI	Walks	Strike Outs	Doubles	Triples	HR	SB	GIDP	Errors	Games
0.265	49	5	13	6	4	10	1	0	1	1	1	1	13

Tim Raines’ numbers in games I’ve attended were:

HOF Career Batting

BA	At Bats	Runs	Hits	RBI	Walks	Strike Outs	Doubles	Triples	HR	SB	GIDP	Errors	Games
0.276	29	8	8	2	4	3	0	0	1	1	1	0	9

Ivan Rodriguez’s numbers in games I’ve attended were:

HOF Career Batting

BA	At Bats	Runs	Hits	RBI	Walks	Strike Outs	Doubles	Triples	HR	SB	GIDP	Errors	Games
0.242	66	9	16	15	8	17	2	0	4	0	2	1	19