NEW YORK (AP) – Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz appear to be shoo-ins for election to the Hall of Fame in what is shaping up as the baseball writers’ biggest class of inductees in 60 years.
When the Hall of Fame reveals the results Tuesday at 2 p.m. on the MLB Network, holdover Craig Biggio and perhaps Mike Piazza could join those three first-ballot pitchers who were utterly dominant in a hitters’ era of artificially bulging statistics.
Here are some things to know about the balloting, conducted again in a period when who’s elected is as intriguing as whose names were not checked by Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters:
THE THREE ACES
Johnson, Martinez and Smoltz stand out among the 17 newcomers to the ballot.