Blyleven, Alomar selected to Hall of Fame. After a narrow miss last year, Bert Blyleven wasn't shy in saying voters finally got it right by sending him into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Roberto Alomar.
And he didn't shy away from talking about the Steroids Era.
All-Star sluggers Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire and Juan Gonzalez didn't come close in Wednesday's election.
"Guys cheated," Blyleven, 59, said. "They cheated themselves and their teammates. The game of baseball is to be played clean."
Blyleven was chosen on 79.7 percent of the ballots - it takes 75 percent from the Baseball Writers' Association of America to reach the shrine. The curveballer won 287 games, threw 60 shutouts and ranks fifth with 3,701 strikeouts.
"It's been 14 years of praying and waiting," Blyleven said. "And thank the baseball writers of America for, I'm going to say, finally getting it right."
Alomar, 42, a 12-time All-Star, was picked on 90 percent of the ballots. He is the third Puerto Rican elected after Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda.
They will join Blue Jays and Phillies general manager Pat Gillick, who was elected by the veterans committee last month. Also, Dave Van Horne, the Marlins play-by-play man who spent 32 years in Montreal calling Expos games, won the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting, an honor bestowed on Giants broadcaster Jon Miller last year. Bill Conlin, a columnist and Phillies beat writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, was named as this year's winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for his long-time contribution to baseball writing.
Jeff Bagwell got 41.7 percent approval. His career stats are among the best for first basemen since World War II. He hit 449 home runs, and was Rookie of the Year, NL MVP and a Gold Glove winner.
Palmeiro was listed on 64 of a record 581 ballots despite 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.
McGwire got 19.8 percent, down from 23.7 percent last year. Juan Gonzalez, a two-time AL MVP, barely topped the 5 percent threshold for remaining on the ballot.
This induction ceremonies are at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 24.
Hall voting
581 votes cast, 436 needed for induction
Others: Juan Gonzalez 30 (5.2%), Harold Baines 28 (4.8%), John Franco 27 (4.6%), Kevin Brown 12 (2.1%), Tino Martinez 6 (1.0%), Marquis Grissom 4 (0.7%), Al Leiter 4 (0.7%), John Olerud 4 (0.7%), B.J. Surhoff 2 (0.3%), Bret Boone 1 (0.2%), Benito Santiago 1 (0.2%), Carlos Baerga 0, Lenny Harris 0, Bobby Higginson 0, Charles Johnson 0, Raul Mondesi 0, Kirk Rueter 0. x-elected.
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