More on Maddux

There has never been a unanimous selection to the HOF. Here are the immortals who came closest, along with the percentage of votes that some of baseball’s greatest players received:

98.8 Nolan Ryan

98.8 Tom Seaver

98.5 Cal Ripken

98.2 Ty Cobb

98.2 George Brett

97.8 Hank Aaron

95.1 Babe Ruth

94.7 Willie Mays

93.4 Ted Williams

93.2 Stan Musial

88.2 Mickey Mantle

83.2 Warren Spahn: most wins since 1930

Brett’s popularity obviously helped total so many votes. How could anyone not vote for Hank Aaron: baseball’s home run king and the first player to tally both 500 home runs and 3000 hits? Nolan Ryan won the most games in recent history and broke the all time strikeout record. Perhaps since earlier greats like Ruth and Cobb did not receive 100% of the votes, some voters take it upon themselves to make sure the Aarons and Nolan Ryans do not either.

Some say Greg Maddux has as good a chance as any to be a unanimous choice. Mad Dog won four straight Cy Young Awards, and was the first pitcher in history to win four. Maddux won more games than anyone since Warren Spahn. He dominated his era, and won at least 15 games in a record 17 straight seasons (He won at least 13 games in 19 straight seasons). He won 18 Gold Gloves, more than any player in history. Maddux’s stats are better than Ryan and Seaver, who each tallied 98.8% of the HOF vote – the highest in history.

PL…wins..losses..win %..era…WHIP…yr..CY..strikeouts

GM…355…227…61.0…3.16…1.143…23…4…3371

TS.…311…205…60.3…2.86…1.121…20…3…3640

NR….324…292…52.6…3.19…1.247…27…0…5714