First, the good news. Each of those who were elected were obviously deserving. Maddux and Glavine, team mates with the Atlanta Braves, were literally a dynamic duo. They combined for 660 wins. Each having 300 wins is an almost automatic in for the Hall of Fame, especially in the live ball era, but these two were masterful coming from both the right and left, hitting spots against opposing batters with their reliance on location, more than power.
On the other side of the positive news, Frank Thomas, was a monster. His only obvious flaw or imperfection as mentioned in his cameo appearance in the baseball movie Mr. Baseball, kryptonite. The guy could just plain hit. Thomas who ended his career with 521 home runs and a .301 career average also seemed to have two automatic ins for his bid into the Hall of Fame.
One more positive from the Baseball Writer's Association were the lowered percentage of support for known PED users. Roger Clemens (37.6 percent in 2013 to 35.4 percent in 2014), Barry Bonds (36.2 to 34.7), Mark McGwire (16.9 to 11.0), Sammy Sosa (12.5 to 7.2) and Rafael Palmeiro (8.8 to 4.4) all lost votes despite their game stats which they imbrued with the stench of anabolic steroids.
While Clemens still pulled in over two hundred votes, it is pretty clear that the voters do not intend to reward player's bad behavior with trips to the idyllic New York countryside. I consider it a positive development that Palmeiro will now drop off the ballot for failure to receive the required five percent of votes to remain there.
On the other side, Biggio, in his second appearance on the ballot, was at 427 votes and 74.8 percent. This works out to two votes short of getting into the Hall of Fame and matches Nellie Fox in 1985 and Pie Traynor in 1947 for the smallest missing margins. I suspect he will get in within the next three years, but again, crowded ballots could be an issue.
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