Second baseman Roberto Alomar and pitcher Bert Blyleven are expected to be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame when voting results are announced at 1 p.m. ET today.
Alomar spent 11/2 of his 17 major-league seasons as a member of the New York Mets. He was nearly elected last year, earning 397 votes (73.7 percent) in his first year on the ballot, falling eight votes short of the required 75 percent. Alomar won a record 10 Gold Gloves, was a 12-time All-Star and a career .300 hitter. He is also remembered for spitting on umpire John Hirschbeck during a 1996 argument.
Blyleven has now been on the ballot for 14 seasons, and support for the 287-game winner has grown steadily. He drew 74.2 percent of the vote a season ago, just five votes short of election. Blyleven finished his 22-year career with 287 wins, 3,701 strikeouts, 60 shutouts and two World Series rings.
Personally, I am not a big Blyleven booster. I guess I can go along with the belief that his body of work over 22 years is good enough to warrant Hall of Fame status.
Other notables on the ballot include Barry Larkin, Jack Morris, Tim Raines and Mark McGwire. Others on the ballot with New York connections include Don Mattingly, Tino Martinez, Al Leiter, Fred McGriff, Kevin Brown, John Franco, Raul Mondesi and John Olerud.
-- See the complete list of nominees