It had been 60 years since four players were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the same class, and even longer since three from the same team — plus their manager — were elected in a two-year span.
John Smoltz helped end both droughts Tuesday when the longtime former Braves pitcher was elected to the Hall of Fame along with multi-Cy Young Award winners Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez and 3,000-hit-club member Craig Biggio. The four-member Class of 2015 is the largest since a Joe DiMaggio-led class of four in 1955.
“I’m honored and humbled, and when the phone call came, I was speechless for the first time,” said the famously loquacious Smoltz, the only pitcher to have as many as 200 wins and 150 saves.
Smoltz will be enshrined July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y., joining fellow Braves Big Three pitchers, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, first-ballot selections in 2014 who were inducted alongside their revered former manager Bobby Cox. That trio formed the backbone for most of Cox’s teams that won a record 14 consecutive division titles through 2005.
“In our lifetime, this is unprecedented,” broadcaster Bob Costas said on MLB Network of the Braves’ four Hall of Fame inductees in two years, all guys who spent a majority of their careers together in Atlanta.
Smoltz spent 20 of his 21 seasons with the Braves, came back from five arm surgeries including four elbow operations, and worked three full seasons as a closer late in his career before moving back to his favored starting role.
In his first year of eligibility he was named on 82.9 percent of the ballots, easily surpassing the 75-percent threshold required for election. He’s a Hall of Famer.
“I’m not comfortable with titles, but I’m relishing this one and I will for the rest of my life,” Smoltz said.
Cox, 73, sounded like a kid shortly after learning that Smoltz had been elected.
“Our guy got in,” Cox gushed over the phone to a reporter. “It’s awesome. Well-deserved. Record speaks for itself, and all the community stuff — I mean he fits everything the Hall of Fame stand for.”
As for Smoltz making it in on the first ballot, as 300-game winners Maddux and Glavine did, Cox said, “That’s how good they were. It speaks for itself now. Not only talented and great, but great community guys, great competitors. And now they’ve been rewarded.”
Another of the biggest contributors to the Braves’ division-title run, third baseman Chipper Jones, will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2018 and is regarded as a strong candidate for first-ballot election.
“The legacy of so many great people who are going to be in the Hall of Fame from one organization — it’s pretty incredible,” Smoltz said.
“To me (Smoltz’s election) was a no-brainer,” said Braves president and longtime former general manager John Schuerholz said. “This guy was a dominant starter, dominant closer, dominant big-game pitcher. Biggest competitor I’ve ever been around, and geared up for the competition, no matter how steep and deep it was, and meaningful it was. He got better (in big games).”
Johnson, who finished with 303 wins and five Cy Young Awards, was named on 534 of the 549 ballots for the eighth-highest percentage (97.1) in history. Martinez, who won three Cy Young Awards in a four-year span, was named on 91.1 percent of the ballots. Smoltz was on 455 ballots, one more than Biggio (82.7 percent).
Johnson and Martinez became the 29th and 30th players named on at least 90 percent of the ballots, joining Maddux, who got 97.2 percent last year, and Glavine (91.9). Johnson ranks second all-time in strikeouts (4,875) and first in strikeouts per nine innings (10.61), while Martinez is third in strikeouts per nine innings (10.04) and led his league in ERA six times on the way to a 219-100 record, 2.93 ERA and 3,154 strikeouts in 2,827 1/3 innings.
Smoltz was the only Braves player there for the Braves’ entire division-title run, although he missed the 2000 season recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery. The eight-time All-Star carved a reputation for competitiveness, toughness and willingness to sacrifice for the team, including agreeing to move to the bullpen for the 2002-04 seasons.
He finished with a 213-155 record, 154 saves, a 3.33 ERA and 3,084 strikeouts in 3,473 innings over 21 seasons, the first 20 of those with the Braves. Additionally, Smoltz ranks among the greatest postseason pitchers with a 15-4 record, four saves, a 2.67 ERA and 199 strikeouts in 209 innings over 41 games (27 starts) in 25 series.
“He pitched with that (elbow) ligament completely torn for half (the 1999) season,” Cox said. “He was still throwing in the 90s and hurting like crazy, but he did it. You’ve got to give him credit for so much.”
“I changed arm angles, I threw sidearm, I threw knuckleballs, I pitched under circumstances that probably weren’t ideal,” Smoltz said. “And if the club would have determined (the bullpen) was the best avenue for me, once they made the change I would have stayed there. And I make no bones about it, as long as my manager Bobby Cox was in Atlanta, I was going to be in Atlanta.”
During the 1991 season, Smoltz’s third full year in the majors, he was 2-11 with a 5.16 ERA in 18 starts before the All-Star break. Many were calling for Smoltz to be dropped from the rotation, but Cox wouldn’t do it. Smoltz went 12-2 with a 2.63 ERA in 18 starts after the break.
Cox was the GM in 1987 when he traded veteran pitcher Doyle Alexander to the Tigers for Smoltz, then a 20-year-old prospect in his second minor league season.
Smoltz and Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley are the only pitchers to have a 20-win season and 50-save season. Smoltz went 24-8 with a 2.94 ERA and 276 strikeouts in his 1996 Cy Young Award season, and converted a Braves-record 55 saves in his first season as a full-time closer in 2002.
