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01/20 17:42 CST Carlos Beltrn and Andruw Jones elected to baseball's Hall of
Fame
Carlos Beltrn and Andruw Jones elected to baseball's Hall of Fame
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --- Carlos Beltrn and Andruw Jones, center fielders who excelled
at the plate and with their gloves, were elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on
Tuesday.
Beltrn, making his fourth appearance of the ballot, received 358 of 425 votes
for 84.2% from the Baseball Writers' Association of America, 39 above the 319
needed for the 75% threshold.
Jones, in the ninth of 10 possible appearances, was picked on 333 ballots for
78.4%
Beltrn moved up steadily from 46.5% in 2023 to 57.1% the following year and
70.3% in 2025, when he fell 19 votes short as Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and
Billy Wagner were elected.
Beltrn was hired as the New York Mets' manager on Nov. 1, 2019, then fired on
Jan. 16 without having managed a game, three days after he was the only Astros
player mentioned by name in a report by Major League Baseball regarding the
team's illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston's run to the
2017 World Series championship.
Jones received just 7.3% in his first appearance in 2018 and didn't get half
the total until receiving 58.1% in 2023. He increased to 61.6% and 66.2%,
falling 35 votes short last year.
They will be inducted at Cooperstown, New York, on July 26 along with second
baseman Jeff Kent, voted in last month by the contemporary era committee.
BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years in the organization were
eligible to vote.
Chase Utley (59.1%) was the only other candidate to get at least half the vote,
improving from 39.8% last year. He was followed by Andy Pettitte at 48.5%, an
increase from 27.9% last year, and Flix Hernndez at 46.1%, up from 20.6%.
Cole Hamels topped first-time candidates at 23.8%. The other first-time players
were all under 5% and will be dropped from future votes.
Steroids-tainted players again were kept from the hall. Alex Rodriguez received
40% in his fifth appearance, up from 7.1%, and Manny Ramirez 38.8% in his 10th
and final appearance.
David Wright increased to 14.8% from 8.1%.
There were 11 blank ballots.
A nine-time All-Star, the switch-hitting Beltrn batted .279 with 435 homers
and 1,587 RBIs over 20 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004,
'17), the Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the New
York Yankees (20014-16) and Texas (2016). He had 311 homers hitting left-handed
and 124 batting right,
Beltrn was the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year and won three Gold Gloves, also
hitting .307 in the postseason with 16 homers and 42 RBIs in 65 games.
Jones batted .254 with 434 homers, 1,289 RBIs and 152 stolen bases in 17
seasons with Atlanta (1996-2007), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2008), Texas (2009),
the Chicago White Sox (2010) and the Yankees (2011-12). He finished his career
with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan's Pacific League from 2013-14.
His batting average is the second-lowest for a position player voted to the
Hall of Fame, just above the .253 of Ray Schalk, a superior defensive catcher,
and just below the .256 of Harmon Killebrew, who hit 573 homers.
A five-time All-Star, Jones earned 10 Gold Gloves. He joins Braves teammates
Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Chipper Jones in the hall along with
manager Bobby Cox.
In the 1996 World Series opener at Yankee Stadium, Jones at 19 years, 5 months
became the youngest player to homer in a Series game, beating Mickey Mantle's
old mark by 18 months. Going deep against Pettitte in the second inning and
Brian Boehringer in the third of a 12-1 rout, Jones became the second player to
homer in his first two Series at-bats after Gene Tenace in 1972.
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