Blyleven, Alomar Elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame

It's official: Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven have both been elected to Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame.

It's been a very long road for Blyleven, who has now finally, finally, FINALLY made it in his 14th year of eligibility. He should have made it the first time but had been jobbed for many years, and last year missed by just 5 votes. Congratulations, Bert! Now we need to campaign for people like Tim Raines to get in.

Alomar made it in his second year of eligibility but should have made it the first time (he missed by 8 votes). This year, he got more than 90% of the votes, which is a record high---under the current election rules, which have been in place for more than half a century---for somebody not in their first year of eligibility.

Pat Gillick had already been voted in by the Veterans Committee. The article to which I link shows the full results. For example, it looks like Barry Larkin will get elected next year (and he'll likely be the only person elected next year), and he also ought to have already been elected.

This, by the way, is my first blog post of the year.

Update: Jayson Stark discusses some of the records Alomar set. (By the way, he's slightly wrong about the first above 90% in a year that isn't the player's first year of eligibility, as this did happen years ago before the voting was in its current format.)