HOF Class of 2015- Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio

[Scott Garner]

Here's a toast to the HOF class of 2015!
I always have been a huge fan of RJ and Pedro Martinez especially, but all of these inductees are solid choices, IMHO.

Randy Johnson (97.3%) was a five-time Cy Young Award winner. Pedro Martinez (91.1%) won three CY's and led MLB in ERA five times. John Smoltz (82.9%) amassed 213 wins to go with 154 saves. Craig Biggio (82.7%) racked up 3,060 hits while playing three positions up the middle. Together, they make up the Hall of Fame's Class of 2015.
The induction ceremony is scheduled for July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

I have previously showed this game used hat that I own in my collection from what quite possibly could be the hat from Randy Johnson's actual debut and 1st win game on 9/15/88. I thought I would include it in this post in honor of the announcement.

[ullmandds]

great hat! cheers to the new inductees...they are all worthy!

[GoCubsGo32]

Awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Great class!

[earlywynnfan]

Awesome hat!!! Here are my induction items. The painted balls are all signed, the GU ones are not. All bats are game used.

Ken

[prewarsports]

Honestly, who DOESN'T vote for Pedro or Randy? Two of the greatest pitchers of all time especially when considering the steroid era in which they pitched.

[Scott Garner]

Honestly, who DOESN'T vote for Pedro or Randy? Two of the greatest pitchers of all time especially when considering the steroid era in which they pitched.

Rhys,
That's absolutely the question that begs to be answered!
Obviously someone didn't vote for them which is just ridiculous...

[Scott Garner]

Awesome hat!!! Here are my induction items. The painted balls are all signed, the GU ones are not. All bats are game used.

Ken

Ken,
Those bats are awesome and the 2015 HOF Induction class painted balls turned out great!

[dgo71]

Honestly, who DOESN'T vote for Pedro or Randy? Two of the greatest pitchers of all time especially when considering the steroid era in which they pitched.

Curt Schilling today opined that some voters left Pedro and Randy off because they were locks, and those voters wanted to use their 10 votes to help others (the Raines and Trammells of the world) remain on the ballot. This caused Buster Olney to almost yell "That tells you how broken the system is.." before stopping himself short and looking like he was about to throw up in his mouth. Limiting the number of players these guys can vote for is nuts.

[prewarsports]

I realized today that this is the first class of Hall of Famers where I have very distinct memories of each as they were rookies (chasing rookie cards and watching as they all emerged).

1. I remember when the mariners traded for Randy Johnson and how mad I was that Mark Langston was gone!

2. I remember a year or so after the set came out, going back through my pillaged 1988 score traded sets to get the Biggio rookies out after he started to emerge as a player.

3. I remember the day I realized that Pedro Martinez was NOT Ramon Martinez (whose 1989 rookie cards I had been hoarding) and telling all my friends at school that "Ramon was way better".

4. I remember John Smoltz' 1989 Upper Deck cards and chasing them down.