Four Players Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

The Baseball Writers Association of America elected four players on the first ballot in 60 years on January 6th. The Class of 2015 includes pitchers Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and John Smoltz, plus Craig Biggio, who was a catcher and second baseman.

A three time Cy Young Award winner, Martinez had a career record of 219-100 and an ERA of 2.93, plus 3154 strikeouts in a career that ran from 1992 to 2009. Martinez’ began his career with the Dodgers; he also played for the Montreal Expos, Mets, and Phillies, but his stint with the Boston Red Sox from 1998-2004 was his most productive. Martinez stated the 1999 All Star Game and struck out five in two innings of work:

Johnson pitched from 1988-2009 with six different teams, though he pitched for the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks for all or parts of 18 of those 22 years. An intimidating presence on the mound at 6’10’’, Johnson had a career record of 303-166 and a 3.29 ERA, plus 4875 strikeouts, second only to Nolan Ryan’s 5714. Johnson won five Cy Young Awards and pitched two no hitters, including a perfect game in 2004. Perhaps his single most famous pitch is the one where an unfortunate bird happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time:

Smoltz enjoyed success as both a starter and reliever in his 1988-2009 career, all but one year of which was with the Atlanta Braves. Smoltz was 213-155 in his career with a 3.33 ERA and 3084 strikeouts. He had 154 saves in four seasons where he was primarily a closer.

Biggio played his entire career (1988-2007) with the Houston Astros. He was primarily a catcher for his first four seasons before moving to second base. A .281 career hitter, Biggio was a workhorse who played at least 140 games in 16 of his 20 seasons, and had both speed (414 stolen bases) and power (291 home runs). Biggio had 3060 career base hits.