NY Yankees great Mariano makes history
Credit to Author: Tempo Online| Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2019 04:31:17 +0000
New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera acknowledging the crowd’s standing ovation. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
NEW YORK (AFP) – Legendary former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera made history on Tuesday after becoming the first player ever to be unanimously voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Baseball Writers Association of America gave Rivera a blanket thumbs up, elevating the 49-year-old Panamanian with three other players.
Rivera was voted in alongside Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina.
Two other players, Harold Baines and Lee Smith, were added to the class of inductees who will be formally ushered into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Cooperstown, New York on July 21.
Halladay was named as a first ballot entrant just over a year after his death in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico in 2017.
Rivera and Halladay are the 55th and 56th players to be voted into the Hall of Fame on their first ballot.
Rivera, widely regarded as the greatest closer in baseball history, was voted in by a landslide, winning the nod from all 425 ballots cast.