The baseball world had turned its attention to snowy hamlet of Cooperstown in upstate New York, where the votes were tallied and the 2023 Hall of Fame class is now complete with one additional member. Former Phillies and Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen scored 76.3% of the vote to earn enshrinement in his sixth election.
Four others tallied greater than 50% of the vote, led by Todd Helton, who jumped up to 72.2% and seems like a lock to be elected next year. Billy Wagner came in with 68.1% and has two more attempts to make it over 75%. Andruw Jones got a big lift, jumping up to 58.1%. Finally, Gary Sheffield, with just one election left, rises to 55% and looks unlikely to make that final jump in his last year.
On the local front, Manny Ramirez, who spent a little more than a month with the White Sox, saw a small increase in support, finishing with 33.2% of the vote thanks to his multiple PED suspensions. The disgraced Omar Vizquel, accused of both sexual abuse of an autistic teen and spousal abuse since being added to the ballot, dropped even more, down to 19.5%. Jimmy Rollins, who spent the final 41 games of his career on the south side, picked up 12.9% in his second go-around. Mark Buehrle jumped back up to 10.8% in his third time on the ballot, living to fight another day. Former Cub pitcher John Lackey nabs a single vote.
Thirteen players will fall off the ballot after failing to score 5% of the vote.
As for the newest Hall of Famer, I’ve seen Rolen play 18 times. He joins Fred McGriff, who was elected by the veteran’s committees in December, in the class of 2023. They will both get their day in the sun on Sunday, July 23.
Scott Rolen’s numbers in games I’ve attended were:
