Baseball Hall of Fame: A “5%” needed for Russell Martin

We can already announce it even before the official unveiling scheduled for Tuesday evening: Quebecer Russell Martin will not be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, in his first year of eligibility.

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In fact, the challenge for Martin is to get enough votes, or 5% of all ballots submitted, to get his name back on the ballot for next year. This result will be known during the evening of Tuesday.

Montrealer Richard Griffin is one of those who voted in favor of the former receiver.

“I don’t want him to be excluded from the ballots,” said Griffin, who was among the voters as a former journalist and columnist at Toronto Star.

The baseball man also worked, during his prolific career, in the communications department for both the Montreal Expos and the Toronto Blue Jays.

“I voted for Russell for different reasons, but mainly for what he did as a receiver,” Griffin said. I particularly remember a conversation with him, when he had decided to skip his turn to represent Canada at the World Classic, where he explained to me that his primary role was to know his pitchers well in major baseball in order to to direct them well.”

Already an achievement!

The simple fact that his name appears for the first time among the candidates for the Hall of Fame is already a laudable achievement for the Quebecer, undisputed proof of the great career he has had in major baseball.

“It’s special that his name is on the ballot, because there are only a small percentage of major league baseball players who deserve this honor,” Griffin insisted.

Only 13 other former players have in fact been entitled to this favor this year, including Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Felix Hernandez and Dustin Pedroia, who seem the most likely to enter the Hall of Fame one day. Suzuki and Sabathia could even be crowned on Tuesday evening, at their first opportunity. Reliever Billy Wagner, who is on his 10th^e and last chance, also risks finally being welcomed among the legends. Otherwise, Carlos Gonzalez, Curtis Granderson, Adam Jones, Ian Kinsler, Brian McCann, Hanley Ramirez, Fernando Rodney, Troy Tulowitzki and Ben Zobrist were all aiming for the famous 5% in their first year on the ballot.

Prolific career

As of Monday, according to certain data compiled by the specialist “NotMrTibbs”, Martin’s name appeared on 3.7% of ballots (7 out of 187). However, several of the 392 possible votes had not been made public.

“Russell has guided his various teams to six consecutive playoff appearances, namely the Yankees (2011 and 2012), the Pirates (2013 and 2014) and the Blue Jays (2015 and 2016), which is quite extraordinary, noted again Griffin. I know Russell doesn’t have Hall of Fame stats offensively, but he was as notable among the receivers of his generation as Johnny Bench was in his era. [de 1967 à 1983].»

Martin, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays during his career, made the playoffs a total of 10 times in 14 seasons in major league baseball. Among individual honors, the Quebecer took part in the All-Star Game four times, winning a Gold Glove and a Silver Bat in 2007, in the Dodgers uniform, when he was only in his second season. If the road to Cooperstown were to end abruptly for the catcher, it should be remembered that Martin has already been inducted, in June 2024, into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, in St. Marys, Ontario.