Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas were elected Wednesday to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
All three, in their first year of eligibility, received the necessary 75 percent threshhold from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to be elected into the hall and will be inducted in July.
All three of the inductees (and in fact, nearly all of the eligible hall candidates) have careers that began before Box-Toppers record keeping started in 1995. But still, the top three candidates rank high among all-time Box-Toppers rankings.
Maddux, whose career lasted from 1986 to 2008, has 151.7 Box-Toppers points since 1995, ranking 14th on the all-time list and 10th among all pitchers.
Glavine, who pitched from 1987 to 2008, has 110.6 Box-Toppers points, ranking 40th on the all-time list and 26th among pitchers.
Thomas, who played from 1990 to 2008, has 106.2 Box-Toppers points, ranking 48th all-time. He ranks ninth among all designated hitters—though he ranks fourth among all players who primarily played the position over the careers, behind Jim Thome, Jason Giambi and David Ortiz. Thomas, who also played first base, ranks fourth in all-time Box-Toppers points at that position, behind Albert Pujols, Carlos Delgado and Todd Helton.
Narrowly missing induction was Craig Biggio with 74.8 percent of the vote. Biggio, in his second year of eligibility, played from 1988 to 2007 and had 54.2 Box-Toppers points, ranking 233rd among all players since 1995, eighth among all second basemen.
Two players who lead their position in all-time Box-Toppers points also failed to be elected to the hall:
- Mike Piazza, in his second year of eligibility, received 62.2 percent of the vote. He played from 1992 to 2007 and recorded 95.7 Box-Toppers points, 67th among all players and first among all catchers.
- Jeff Kent, in his first year of eligibility, received only 15.2 percent of the vote. He played from 1992 to 2008 and earned 109.7 Box-Toppers points, 41st among all players and first by far among all second basemen. In second place among all second basemen in all-time Box-Toppers points is Chase Utley with 67.1.
The player eligible for induction with the highest all-time Box-Toppers point total was Curt Schilling. Schilling is third in all-time Box-Toppers points with 194.1, behind only Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, both of whom will be eligible for induction next year. Schilling is also third in all-time Box-Toppers points among pitchers, behind Johnson and Martinez. However, Schilling finished 12th among players eligible for the hall with only 29.2 percent of the vote.
Though Box-Toppers has kept track of the game’s top players for 19 seasons, a couple of players eligible for the hall had careers that mostly preceded that:
- Pitcher Jack Morris, in fact, never received a Box-Toppers point because his career ended in 1994, the season before Box-Toppers record keeping began. Morris finished sixth among eligible players with 61.5 percent of the vote in his 15th and final year of eligibility in the writers’ vote.
- Left fielder Tim Raines received 46.1 percent of the vote in his seventh year of eligibility. Most of his career was before Box-Toppers started (1979 to 2002) and he has 17.7 Box-Toppers points.
Other notable players, whose candidacies were all affected by the performance enhancing drug scandal, were again not elected to the hall:
- Roger Clemens received 35.4 percent of the vote in his second year of eligibility. His career began in 1984 and since 1995, he has 164.8 Box-Toppers points, ninth all-time and seventh among all pitchers.
- Barry Bonds received 34.7 percent of the vote in his second year of eligibility. His career began in 1986 and since 1995, he has 153.2 Box-Toppers points, 13th all-time and second among all outfielders (behind only Manny Ramirez).
- Mark McGwire received 11.0 percent of the vote in his eighth year of eligibility. His career began in 1986 and since 1995, he has 77.3 Box-Toppers points, 115th all-time and 15th among all first basemen.
- Sammy Sosa received 7.2 percent of the vote in his second year of eligibility. His career began in 1989 and since 1995, he has 113.2 Box-Toppers points, 38th all-time and fifth among all outfielders.
- Rafael Palmeiro received 4.4 percent of the vote in his fourth year of eligibility. His career began in 1986 and since 1995, he has 77.9 Box-Toppers points, 111th all-time and 13th among all first basemen. Palmeiro did not receive enough votes to remain eligible for next year’s writers’ hall of fame ballot.
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Top players from the winning team of each game are determined by a formula using standard box score statistics. The player on the winning team with the highest Box-Toppers game score is Player of the Game and receives 1.0 Box-Toppers point. The Player of the Game with the highest overall Box-Toppers game score for all the games played that day is Player of the Day and earns a total of 2.0 Box-Toppers points. The top player of the day in the opposite league receives a total of 1.7 Box-Toppers points. If both the day’s top overall player and top player in the opposite league are pitchers, then the top American League and top National League batter of the day receive a total of 1.5 Box-Toppers points each.
How Hall of Fame candidates fared in Box-Toppers
Here are the results of Baseball Hall of Fame voting, with players listed from highest to lowest vote totals. Most The far right columns show how many Box-Toppers points (BTP) they earned during their careers (since 1995), their overall rank in Box-Toppers points (BT rank) and their rank among players at their position. Thirty-six players were eligible for the hall and 30 received at least one vote. Included here are the top 10 and other selected players:
| Rank | Name | Votes (Pct.) | Yrs on ballot | Pos | Yrs active | BTP | BT rank | BT pos rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *1 | Greg Maddux | 555 (97.2%) | 1 | pi sp | 86-08 | 151.7 | 14 | 10 |
| *2 | Tom Glavine | 525 (91.9) | 1 | pi sp | 87-08 | 110.6 | 40 | 26 |
| *3 | Frank Thomas | 478 (83.7) | 1 | dh 1b | 90-08 | 106.2 | 48 | 9 |
| 4 | Craig Biggio | 427 (74.8) | 2 | 2b | 88-07 | 54.2 | 233 | 8 |
| 5 | Mike Piazza | 355 (62.2) | 2 | ca | 92-07 | 95.7 | 67 | 1 |
| 6 | Jack Morris | 351 (61.5) | 15 | pi sp | 77-94 | 0 | - | - |
| 7 | Jeff Bagwell | 310 (54.3) | 4 | 1b | 91-05 | 100.4 | 57 | 5 |
| 8 | Tim Raines | 263 (46.1) | 7 | lf | 79-02 | 17.7 | 900 | 199 |
| 9 | Roger Clemens | 202 (35.4) | 2 | pi sp | 84-07 | 164.8 | 9 | 7 |
| 10 | Barry Bonds | 198 (34.7) | 2 | lf | 86-07 | 153.2 | 13 | 2 |
| 12 | Curt Schilling | 167 (29.2) | 2 | pi sp | 88-07 | 194.1 | 3 | 3 |
| 15 | Mike Mussina | 116 (20.3) | 1 | pi sp | 91-08 | 155.6 | 12 | 9 |
| 16 | Jeff Kent | 87 (15.2) | 1 | 2b | 92-08 | 109.7 | 41 | 1 |
* Denotes the player received the necessary 75 percent of the vote to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Note: All players had careers that preceded Box-Toppers record keeping, especially Jack Morris and Tim Raines.
Source: Baseball Writers' Association of America.