While Chipper Jones received an overwhelming majority of votes to gain entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, not everyone was so enamored of the beloved ex-Atlanta Brave to vote for him.
At least four members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) did not vote for Jones, who was the leading vote-getter in this year’s hall of fame class.
While the official BBWAA public ballot won’t be released until Feb. 7, a spreadsheet put together by Ryan Thibodaux shows four voters who didn’t cast ballots for Jones:
- David Ginsburg, a Baltimore AP sports writer
- Bill Livingston of the Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Jose de Jesus Ortiz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Mark Purdy, retired sports columnist for the Mercury News in San Jose, CA
There were 422 ballots, including one blank, submitted by eligible members of the BBWAA, writers with 10 or more consecutive years of service. Jones was the leading vote getter with 410, which accounted for 97.2 percent of the vote, which ranks 11th all-time in plurality. Players need to appear on 75 percent of ballots cast to earn election to the Hall.
Chipper Jones through the years
Jones' name was on 97.2 percent of the ballots. Only six Hall of Famers have been included on at least 98 percent of the ballots, according to MLB.com writer Mark Bowman. The all-time record is Ken Griffey Jr., who was named on 99.3 percent of the ballots back in 2016.
Purdy got into an often-amusing social media exchange when he said that Vladimir Guerrero, who made the final cut this year, was a better overall hitter than Jones:
For his part, Ginsburg told the Glenn Clark radio show that, while Jones had a great career, he would hve been more supportive of Jones in his second year of eligibility, not the first.
Livingston said he "probably should not have voted at all" this year because of the "lack of clarity on the steroid era. I had said last year I that wouldn’t vote anymore but I felt strongly about Omar Vizquel and Thome.
"Chipper certainty belongs," he said.
Besides Jones and Guerrero, other candidates making the Hall of Fame were Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman. Edgar Martinez just missed the cut with 70.4 percent of the votes.
His former teammates, pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, have all been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens once again missed the mark needed to make the Hall of Fame, but did see their names on more ballots. Bonds was on 56.4 percent of the votes while Clemens' name was on 57.3 percent.
The 2018 class induction ceremony will happen on July 29 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Jones continued to tweet out his thanks to the Hall of Fame on Thursday:
