Mariano Is a Unanimous Hall of Fame Inductee Only Because He Received All of the Votes

Mariano Rivera was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In addition, Rivera received 100% of the possible votes, making him the first player to be inducted with a unanimous vote.  That being said, in short order, all of the critics will begin speaking out against Rivera’s election, as if Rivera himself had something to do with the results of the balloting.

When, in 2016, Steph Curry became the first unanimous winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, I wrote at that time that Steph Curry was a unanimous MVP solely because he received all of the votes. Despite this fact, former players all felt as if Curry believed that he was better than Jordan, Barkley or Karl Malone. Sadly, in short order, Rivera will undoubtedly face the same type of criticism.

The funny thing about votes like the Hall of Fame is, because there are so many votes, and achieving the requisite 75% is a virtual certainty for the most deserving players, there will be many voters who will feel that since Player X is a lock to get voted in, they will not vote for Player X, and will cast a vote for a different player, hoping to improve that player’s chances of being inducted. As a result, the top vote-getter will receive somewhere between 92 & 95% of the vote. This doesn’t mean that Rivera is, or believes that he is, better than Rickey Henderson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Tom Seaver, Babe Ruth, Tom Glavine, or anyone else. It simply means that no voter made the decision not to vote for Rivera. Nothing more and nothing less.

Since we now know and understand that Mariano Rivera had nothing to do with the vote, and we now know that Rivera does not believe, because of this vote, that he is the greatest baseball player ever, we don’t need to hear from the collection of bitter ex-stars. We don’t need to hear from Scottie Pippen, talking about how the 1996 Bulls could have beat the 1999 Yankees (the year that Rivera was World Series MVP). We don’t need to hear how Rivera was no Rollie Fingers, or was less valuable than Tino Martinez or Chuck Knoblauch. We don’t need to hear any of this. All we need to hear is that Rivera was one of the greats in baseball history, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, on his first opportunity, with every voter selecting him on their ballots.

There is no argument that Rivera was a great player. Unfortunately, the argument will be, because of the results of the 2019 Hall of Fame voting, whether or not Rivera believes that he is the greatest athlete alive. Sadly, this is an argument that does not need to happen, but invariably, it will.