Barry Larkin saw a nice gain in last year's Hall of Fame voting, and so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that this year he received more than the 75 percent of votes required for election. The twelve-time All-Star received 86.4 percent of the vote in this, his third year on the ballot, and was the only player elected by the writers this year. Jack Morris received the second-highest vote total, appearing on 66.7 percent of ballots, up from 53.5 percent last year. Jeff Bagwell — who proves that merely being suspected of P.E.D. use is enough to derail one's candidacy these days — was named on 56 percent of ballots, though that's up from 41.7 percent last year.

A number of former Mets and Yankees received votes. Lee Smith (who appeared in eight games as a Yankee in 1993) received 50.6 percent of the vote, while Tim Raines got 48.7 percent of the vote. Further down on the list, Don Mattingly received 17.8 percent, and in his first year on the ballot, Bernie Williams appeared on 55 out of 573 ballots, good for just 9.6 percent. (Bernie is the only player appearing for the first time this year who earned the 5 percent required to remain on the ballot.) Some former locals who appeared on zero ballots: Jeromy Burnitz, Rubin Sierra, and Tony Womack.