Scott Rolen, a Cardinals Star, Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

“He was like, ‘Dad, I think you’re getting in,’ and I’m like, ‘Mmm, I don’t think so,’” Rolen said in a video news conference on Tuesday. “It was Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Trevor Hoffman — it was a big ballot. I didn’t know a lot about the system for quite a while, and it came up at 10 percent, something like that, and I was still on. And he says to me, ‘Did we win?’ And I said, ‘Oh, we won. Yes, we won.’”

That initial victory, of sorts, triggered a steady climb: 17.2 percent in 2019 to 35.3, 52.9, 63.2 and finally to Tuesday’s winning figure. Todd Helton, the former first baseman for the Colorado Rockies, was right behind Rolen with 72.2 percent of the vote in his fifth try, followed by the former closer Billy Wagner (68.1) and the former outfielders Andruw Jones (58.1) and Gary Sheffield (55.1).

All of those candidates will return next year, along with a group of 10 other holdovers that includes Carlos Beltrán (the top vote-getter among first-year candidates, at 46.5 percent). The next ballot will also include the newcomers Joe Mauer, Chase Utley and Adrián Beltré, who will likely become the next third baseman in the Hall.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/sports/baseball/scott-rolen-hall-of-fame.html