SnakePit Hall of Fame Inductees
- 2015 - Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez
- 2016 - Ken Griffey Jr.
- 2017 - Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Vladimir Guerrero, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling, John Smoltz
- 2018 - Chipper Jones, Ivan Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez
- 2019 - Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Jim Thome
- 2020 - Roy Halladay, Derek Jeter
- 2021 - None
2021 voting
There were 23 ballots submitted this year. No-one came particularly close, with a three-way tie on 15 votes, three short of the necessary 75% needed. The players who led the way were Todd Helton, Scott Rolen and Mike Mussina. The last-named still remains outside the SnakePit Hall of Fame, one of the few difference in personnel; he was elected to Cooperstown in 2019. Helton and Rolen both received significant upticks of support, compared to their performances last year, where they scored 49.0% and 39.8% respectively. Maybe 2022 will be their year...
Going in the other direction, the most obvious losers this year were the steroid double-act of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who both dropped a good amount. Clemens, in particular, slumped from 49.0% all the way down to 26.1%, losing close to half his support. Both will be in their final year of eligibility in 2022, so right now their prospects seems fairly bleak. Voters were generally pretty generous, with an average of 9.4 names listed per ballot. Two people - and you know who you are! - took full advantage, by listing no fewer than twenty-three names apiece! At the other end, one person did submit a blank ballot.
As a result, only five names will be crossed off the ballot for next year, having failed to reach the 5% barrier needed to qualify. We will be saying goodbye to Jason Giambi, J.J. Putz, Shane Victorino. LaTroy Hawkins and Michael Cuddyer. On the other hand, Dan Haren got considerably more love from the SnakePit electorate, being named by six people, when he was left off all ballots for Cooperstown. Barry Zito got a similar level of support to Haren from the SnakePit, but just one BBWAA mention.
Thanks to all those who took part. There’ll be no induction ceremony this year, so I will be looking to return those catering packs of vol-au-vents to Smart & Final...