COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., 1 December 2004 — Five-time American League batting champion Wade Boggs, two-time NL batting champ Willie McGee and former Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell are among 12 first-year candidates on the 2005 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
Former relief pitcher Jeff Montgomery, starting pitcher Mark Langston, switch- hitting slugger Chili Davis, and former home run champion Darryl Strawberry are also on the ballot for the first time.
Other first-timer eligible for 2005 are pitchers Jim Abbott and Tom Candiotti, catcher Terry Steinbach, infielder/outfielder Tony Phillips and outfielder Otis Nixon.
There are also 15 holdovers from the 2004 ballot, including second baseman Ryne Sandberg, outfielders Jim Rice and Andre Dawson, and relievers Bruce Sutter and Rich “Goose” Gossage.
Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor were both elected to the Hall on their first ballots and were inducted this past summer. Sandberg, the 1982 NL MVP, was 71 votes short of the total required for election last year.
Candidates must be named on 75 percent of the ballots cast to gain entry into the Hall of Fame. Sandberg was on 61.1 percent of the 506 ballots submitted by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The only other players named on at least half the ballots were Sutter (59.5), a Cy Young Award-winning relief pitcher, and MVP outfielders Rice (54.5) and Dawson (50.0). More than 500 voting members from the BBWAA will be mailed ballots this week and results will be announced on Jan. 4, 2005.
Boggs ended his 18-year career (1982-99) with a .328 average, 118 homers and 1,014 RBI. He had 3,010 hits, 23rd most on the all-time list and his batting average is 26th. A 12-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner at third base, Boggs also ranks 14th in doubles. He spent the first 11 years of his career in Boston and then five seasons with the Yankees, capturing a World Series crown in 1996 with New York, before ending with two years at Tampa Bay. McGee spent nearly 13 of his 18 years in the majors playing for the Cardinals. He was named the NL MVP in 1985, a year in which he hit .353 and led St. Louis to the World Series, where the Cardinals lost to Kansas City. A switch-hitter, McGee ended his career with a .295 average, 79 homers and 856 RBI. He’s a four-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove winner as an outfielder. McGee won the batting title in 1985 and again in 1990 when he was traded from St. Louis to Oakland.
McDowell captured the AL Cy Young Award in 1993 when he ended the season with a 22-10 mark and a 3.37 ERA while pitching for the Chicago White Sox. The right-hander played a total of 12 seasons and was an All-Star three times. He finished with a 127-87 mark and a 3.85 ERA. He led the AL in complete games three times.
