Scott Rolen Now in Baseball Hall of Fame

Scott Rolen, Baseball Hall of Fame!

Scott Rolen was voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, almost missing out by the smallest of margins.

In his sixth year of eligibility, Rolen, one of the game’s best third basemen, was named on 76.3% of ballots cast. Todd Helton, a former Colorado Rockies first baseman, earned 72.2% of the vote in his sixth election attempt.

Along with Helton, none of the other 27 players on the ballot for 2023 met the 75% threshold for election.

After a five-year waiting period, players can appear on the ballot for ten seasons if they appear on at least 5% of the ballots during a voting session.

“You don’t consider it,” Rolen stated on MLB Network. “You think about doing your best, playing for your team, and playing the game as well as you can, and it’s a long path. I never imagined that the Hall of Fame would be the answer.”

During his, almost 20 year career with the Phillies, Reds, Blue Jays, and Cardinals, Rolen was a seven-time All-Star. His eight Gold Gloves placed fourth among third basemen. When the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006, he was the 1997 National League Rookie of the Year.

Online tracking put Rolen and Helton at 75% all winter, but close enough to make the conclusion unknown since such levels sometimes decrease when final numbers get disclosed due to unpublished ballots.

Rolen stated that he did not trace the trackers since he was not required to: His relatives and friends kept him up to date, “blowing up” his phone whenever the figures changed.

One of the reasons Rolen’s case gained traction so rapidly was his expertise in sophisticated analytics.

From The Man Himself

Rolen, who claims he didn’t pay attention to advanced statistics until after he retired, profited from the measures’ high scores for defense and baserunning. It wasn’t a coincidence that he shone in those areas.

“I was quite proud of my defense and baserunning,” Rolen remarked. “Those were two areas to which I could contribute on a regular basis on the field.”

Helton, who began at 16.5% in 2019, has followed the same increasing trend. Helton hit .316 in 17 seasons with the Rockies and was a four-time winner of the Silver Slugger and three-time Gold Glover for his performance at first base.

Billy Wagner (68.1%), Andruw Jones (58.1%), and Gary Sheffield (55%), among others, were named on at least half of the ballots cast.

Wagner, one of the most powerful relievers of his generation, has slowly garnered popularity. Last year, he received 51% of the vote. His tenth season of eligibility will begin next year.

Rolen’s close victory (he cleared the 75% threshold by just five votes) means that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America has only refused to elect new members nine times in its existence. The authors did not nominate anyone in 2021

Luck?

The BBWAA has elected only two players in the last three years, a record low. Since yearly voting was established in 1966, the writers have never failed to nominate at least two players in any three-year period. They also elected just two players in each of the three-year intervals ending in 1968, as well as in each of the seasons from 1996 to 1998.

Ironically, the lack of electees occurs only a few years after a particularly fertile time of voting by writers. During the three-year period ending in 2019, the BBWAA chose 11 new Hall members; from 2015 to 2019, the writers elected 17 new Hall of Famers.

Unlike in 2021, when no new Hall of Famers, picked by either the writers or an era committee — for the first time since 1960 — at least two new inductees will deliver speeches in Cooperstown during induction celebrations on July 23.

Written By Lance Santoyo

Sources:

ESPN: Eight-time Gold Glove 3B Scott Rolen makes Baseball Hall of Fame

New York Post: Scott Rolen celebrated Hall of Fame election in touching moment with parents

Boston Globe: Newly elected Hall of Famer Scott Rolen benefits from a voting process that has changed

Top and Featured Image Courtesy of slgckgc Flickr Page – Public Domain License

Inset Image Courtesy of prettyemmy Flickr Page – Creative Commons License