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LAS VEGAS | Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to baseball Hall of Fame
LAS VEGAS | Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to baseball Hall of Fame
LAS VEGAS — Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to baseball Hall of Fame.
By Associated Press
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LAS VEGAS | Windy City Wins: Lee Smith, Baines elected to baseball Hall
LAS VEGAS | Windy City Wins: Lee Smith, Baines elected to baseball Hall
LAS VEGAS— Longtime closer Lee Smith and smooth-swinging Harold Baines have been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.
Former outfielder and manager Lou Piniella fell one vote short.
The results by the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee were announced Sunday at the winter meetings.
Smith and Baines both debuted in Chicago during the 1980 season — Smith began with the Cubs and went on to post a…
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Berhalter hired as US soccer coach after World Cup failure
Berhalter hired as US soccer coach after World Cup failure
Gregg Berhalter was hired Sunday to coach the U.S. men’s national team, making him the first person to run the team after playing for the Americans at the World Cup.
Berhalter, who spent the past five seasons as coach of Major LeagueSoccer’s Columbus Crew, represents a generational change for an American team staggered by its failure to reach this year’s World Cup after seven straight appearances…
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New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/jones-thome-guerrero-hoffman-elected-to-baseball-hall-2/74214/
Jones, Thome, Guerrero, Hoffman elected to baseball Hall
NEW YORK/January 25, 2018(AP)(STL.News)— Over 600 home runs. More than 600 saves. A .300 career average.
In the age of baseball analytics, there’s still room in the Hall of Fame for big, round numbers you can count on.
Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman were rewarded Wednesday, easily elected in the newest class headed for Cooperstown.
“I don’t know how you tabulate or calculate WAR,” Jones said, referring to a sabermetric stat that didn’t exist for much of his career.
“Yes, you can dig deeper,” he said. But he added: “What I want to see is batting average, on-base percentage, runs produced.”
Designated hitter Edgar Martinez came close after a grass-roots campaign to promote him. Boosted by advanced metrics, he’ll get his last chance on the ballot next year.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both tainted by the steroids scandal, edged up but again fell far short.
A switch-hitter who batted .303 with 468 home runs, Jones was an eight-time All-Star third baseman for the Atlanta Braves.
He was a force for most of the Atlanta teams that won 14 straight division titles — his election put another member of those Braves clubs in the Hall, along with pitchers John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, manager Bobby Cox and general manager John Schuerholz.
Of the four new members, Jones was the only one to win a World Series. He joined Ken Griffey Jr. as the lone overall No. 1 draft picks to reach the Hall.
Jones and Thome made it 54 players elected in their first year of eligibility by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Jones drew 97.2 percent (410 of 422) of the vote and Thome was at 89.8 percent — 75 percent is needed for election.
“It was waterworks,” Jones said after receiving the call.
Thome hit 612 home runs, ranking him eighth on the career list, and launched a record 13 walk-off homers. The five-time All-Star played mostly for the Cleveland Indians.
Thome was known for his pre-swing routine, standing absolutely still in the box while pointing his bat at the pitcher. He said the posture helped him relax, slow down and “not be so tense.”
The slugger praised his longtime hitting coach, Charlie Manuel, for all the work they did together.
“It’s about sweat equity, and getting after it,” Thome said on MLB Network.
Guerrero was elected in his second try, getting 92.9 percent. The nine-time All-Star played half his career with the Montreal Expos.
The outfielder batted .318 with 449 homers and 1,496 RBIs, and was a notorious bad-ball hitter. He said he developed that talent as a kid in the Dominican Republic, playing a game similar to cricket in which hitters swung broomsticks while pitchers tried to bounce balls past them and knock over folded license plates.
“That opened up my hitting zone,” Guerrero said through a translator.
Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina, who was in Switzerland, congratulated Guerrero, saying on his Twitter account that “it fills all Dominicans with pride that he has carried our flag to the top.”
CDN television in the Dominican showed images of fireworks and people celebrating in the streets in Nizao, Guerrero’s hometown located 30 miles west of the capital in Santo Domingo.
Hoffman was chosen in his third year, getting 79.9 percent after missing by just five votes last time. The former Padres closer used an outstanding changeup to post 601 saves, second to Mariano Rivera’s 652, and revved up fans in San Diego with rocking entrances to “Hells Bells” by AC/DC.
Hoffman became the sixth pitcher who was mostly a reliever to make the Hall, along with Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers and Hoyt Wilhelm.
As for his wait, Hoffman said: “You can’t do anything to enhance your career after not getting that call. I’m not worried about whatever year it is. I’m ecstatic to get in.”
It took 317 votes to be elected. There were 422 ballots submitted, including one blank entry.
Martinez made a big move up to 70.4 percent and fell 20 votes short in his next-to-last year on the ballot. Mike Mussina climbed to 63.5 percent.
“It would have been great to get in this year, but it looks great for next year,” Martinez said on a conference call.
Clemens, winner of 354 games and seven Cy Young Awards, got 57.3 percent after drawing 54.1 percent last time. Bonds, the career home run leader and a seven-time MVP, reached 56.4 percent, up from 53.8 percent.
Clemens and Bonds each get four more tries. They seem to be “gaining steam with newer voters,” Jones said.
Omar Vizquel (37 percent), Scott Rolen (10.2) and Andruw Jones (7.3) were first-time candidates. Among the players who drew under 5 percent and fell off the ballot were Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Johan Santana.
Pete Rose, permanently banned from Major League Baseball after an investigation into his betting on the game, didn’t receive any write-in votes, as he often has in the past.
There are now 323 people in the Hall, including a rush of 23 elected by the BBWAA and veterans panels in the last five years.
The four new members will be inducted on July 29. They will be enshrined with pitcher Jack Morris and shortstop Alan Trammell, picked last month by a committee that considered older players and executives.
This matches the biggest lineup of living players to be inducted since 1955, when Joe DiMaggio, Gabby Hartnett, Ted Lyons, Dazzy Vance, Home Run Baker and Ray Schalk were honored.
“We have a large class,” Hoffman said.
Rivera highlights the newcomers on next year’s ballot, once again raising debate over whether any player will be unanimously elected to the Hall. Todd Helton, Andy Pettitte and the late Roy Halladay also will be first-time candidates.
___
More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball
By Associated Press, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (TM)
New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/chipper-jones-set-join-familiar-names-hall-fame/72182/
Chipper Jones set to join familiar names in Hall of Fame
ATLANTA /January 22, 2018(AP)(STL.News)—When Chipper Jones took stock of all of the familiar names he’s on the cusp of rejoining, he wondered if it might be time to expand the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“We need to see if we can erect our own room in Cooperstown,” Jones quipped, flashing that dry sense of humor he was known for during his playing days.
All signs point to Jones becoming the latest member of those great Atlanta Braves teams of the 1990s and early 2000s to enter the Hall when the inductees are revealed on Wednesday.
The Braves’ Big Three — pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz — already have taken their place in Cooperstown, along with Atlanta‘s longtime manager, Bobby Cox , and the architect of 14 straight division titles, general manager John Schuerholz.
A third baseman who played his entire 19-year career in Atlanta, Jones appears certain of election based on a tracking of ballots that show his support running at more than 98 percent , well above the 75 percent threshold.
His credentials include a .303 career average, 468 homers, nine seasons with at least 100 RBIs, eight All-Star Game appearances, a .401 on-base average, the 1999 NL MVP award, a batting title at age 36.
Jones always had a real appreciation for the history of the game and all the greats who came before him, which would make getting into the Hall even more poignant.
His father idolized Mickey Mantle, so he pushed young Chipper to become a switch-hitter. Jones wound up batting above .300 from both sides of the plate — an accomplishment that eluded even the Mick.
“I didn’t play the game for money,” Jones told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I never saw a pay stub my entire time in professional baseball. I didn’t care. I didn’t have to be the highest-paid player.
Trust me, I was more than happy with what I got.”
Indeed, while he made about $177 million during his career, Jones never really came close to becoming a free agent. He wasn’t interested in seeing what he could bring on the open market. He was content to remain with the Braves, always cognizant of how good he had it.
Jones broke into the lineup in 1995, helping win a fourth straight division title and what would be Atlanta’s only World Series championship during this run. There were 10 more division titles in the unprecedented streak, which finally ended in 2006. Jones would play on two more playoff teams, then retired after the 2012 season, giving him 13 postseason appearances in all.
Only twice in his career did the Braves have a losing record.
“Man, it was a good marriage,” Jones said. “I was a big Dodgers fan growing up, but I never really thought about wanting to put on a Dodgers uniform. I never thought about playing in the big city lights of New York or wonder what it would be like to be a Yankee. I was a Brave.”
The Braves were one of baseball’s worst teams when they drafted Jones with the No. 1 overall pick in 1990. Pitcher Todd Van Poppel was considered the top prospect that year, but many teams — Atlanta included — backed off when the right-hander vowed to attend college.
Turns out, Van Poppel did sign with the Oakland Athletics after they grabbed him with the 13th pick. But the Braves never had any second thoughts about their selection.
Van Poppel bounced around to six teams, going 40-52 with a 5.58 ERA.
Jones became the face of a franchise.
Of course, there are some regrets about all the postseason heartbreak — especially the 1996 World Series, when the Braves seemed a lock to capture their second straight championship.
“We win the first two at Yankee Stadium,” Jones said, by a combined score of 16-1, no less. “Riding home on the plane, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Two years in the big leagues, two World Series rings.’ I counted my chickens before they hatched. As baseball normally does, it came back to humble me.”
The Braves lost the next four games — three in Atlanta — and never came so close again to a
championship.
In the only other Series appearances of Jones’ career, the Braves were swept by the Yankees in 1999.
Nine more times, Atlanta was eliminated in an NL Division Series or Championship Series. And in his final game, the Braves lost to St. Louis in baseball’s first wild-card playoff , with Jones making a crucial throwing error and fans littering the field with garbage after a disputed infield-fly call.
“To say we left at least one or two out there is not an understatement,” he said ruefully.
In retirement, Jones and others wondered how he would fare without a game that was such a big part of his life.
Not to worry.
The 45-year-old married for a third time in 2015 and now has six children, all boys, the youngest of whom turned 1 a couple of weeks ago. He plays golf regularly and gets paid to pursue another passion on his weekly Sportsman Channel show “Major League Bowhunter .” He has attended spring training as a guest instructor of the Braves but has shown no real desire to get back into the game full time.
“Nobody was more shocked than I was,” Jones said. “I thought they would have to rip the uniform off me.”
While content with life after baseball, he is looking forward for a reunion this summer in Cooperstown. With Maddux and Glavine and Smoltz .
With Cox and Schuerholz .
“Hopefully,” Jones said, “this will come to fruition and we’ll all be back together again in one big group. That would be pretty cool.”
By PAUL NEWBERRY by Associated Press, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (US)
Wind speed 4.0 m/s. Sea temp: 25.4 °C, air temp: 24.1 °C. #timraines
Enjoy Your Stay at the Grand Cooperstown Hostel
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