The 2022 National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was released and on it are 30 candidates, including 13 newcomers. Up for induction are seven former players with ties to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Carl Crawford, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Tim Lincecum, Justin Morneau, Joe Nathan, David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon, Jake Peavy, A.J. Pierzynski, Álex Rodríguez, Jimmy Rollins and Mark Teixeira debuted on the Hall of Fame ballot for 2022.
Returning for consideration are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, Scott Rolen, Omar Vizquel, Billy Wagner, Todd Helton, Gary Sheffield, Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent, Manny Ramirez, Andy Pettite, Mark Buehrle, Torii Hunter, Bobby Abreu and Tim Hudson.
Any candidate who receives votes on 75% of all ballots will earn election into the Hall of Fame. Results will be announced Jan. 25 on MLB Network, and the 2022 Hall of Fame Class will be inducted during Hall of Fame Weekend on July 24, at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown.
Candidates remain on the BBWAA ballot for 10 years as long as they are not elected and they are named on at least 5% of ballots cast each year.
Bonds, Clemens, Schilling and Sosa are in their final season on the ballot, meaning if they don’t reach the 75% threshold, they will be removed from voting next season.
Kent is in his ninth year of voting while Sheffield is in his eighth.
Schilling (71.1%), Bonds (61.8%), Clemens (61.6$) and Rolen (52.9%) were the only players to receive more than half the vote last year, so they are the early favorites to be inducted this time around.
While they spent time with the Dodgers during their respective careers, Crawford, Rollins, Abreu, Jones, Kent and Ramirez each would be immortalized while donning the cap of another club; Sheffield may fall into that category as well.
Including managers, executives, broadcasters and players, a total of 59 members with ties to the Dodgers have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The last player to be enshrined with the Dodgers as his primary team was Don Sutton in 1998.
Scully hopes to see Hodges inducted into Hall of Fame
In addition to the players included on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for the class of 2022, the National Baseball Hall of Fame is giving others an opportunity to be inducted via the Early Baseball Era Committee and Golden Days Era Committee.
The latter considers candidates whose primary contribution to the game came from 1950-69. Among those who will be considered for election this year include longtime Brooklyn and L.A. Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges, who Vin Scully wants to see inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Hodges spent the first 16 of his 18 seasons with the organization, batting .274/.360/.488 with 1,884 hits, 361 home runs, 1,254 RBI and 1,088 runs scored. He earned eight All-Star selections, three Gold Glove Awards and helped the Dodgers win two World Series championships (1955,0 1959).
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