Carter in the Hall?, II

Both Gary Carter and Eddie Murray will be inducted as it turns out. Murray was a no-brainer, and Carter was long overdue.

I am surprised, however, that Ryne Sandberg did not even get 50% of the vote and that Bruce Sutter was third. Maybe not that many people thought of Sandberg as a first-ballot type. Next year's vote will be very important for his candidacy. Sutter seemed to benefit the most from all the "relievers for the Hall" talk. I would have picked Gossage first, but both are pretty good candidates. Also, I expected that Lee Smith's save totals would buoy him above the other two, but guess I underestimtaed the voters.

I haven't seen the complete voting results, but Here's what ESPN had:

Eddie Murray 423 85.3%
Gary Carter 387 78.0%
Bruce Sutter 266 53.6%
Jim Rice 259 52.2%
A. Dawson 248 50.0%
Ryne Sandberg 248 49.2%
Lee Smith 210 42.3%
Rich Gossage 209 42.1%

Rice, Dawson, and Blyleven (who didn't make the top 8) are still doing pretty poorly. ESPN reports that Jim "Kitty" Kaat only received 26.2% in his last year of eligibility and now is subject to the vicissitudes of the Veterans' Committee.