And Your Cooperstown Class of 2015 is…

Last year, the big story was Craig Biggio falling two votes short of induction into the Hall of Fame. Well, and I apologize in advance for the hackneyed cliché, but the third time must be the charm, because the longtime Houston Astro is a Hall of Famer.

And he’s not alone.

For the second time in as many years, three first ballot inductees will be hitting the stage this July in Cooperstown. Joining Biggio are pitchers Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, making it the first time ever that a trio of pitchers have been elected on their first ballot.

While Biggio is, perhaps, the best story of the day, the most impressive was how well Johnson’s resume was received by the Hall of Fame electorate. With 303 victories, 4875 strikeouts and five Cy Young Awards, “The Big Unit” was a shoe-in to be elected on Tuesday…it was just a matter of how close to unanimous he was going to be. And with 97.3% of the vote (534 total votes), he joins Tom Seaver (elected in 1992), Nolan Ryan (1999) and Greg Maddux (2014) as four of the more convincing cases of pitchers in recent memory. As a side note, both Seaver and Ryan both got in with 98.8% of the vote, but get this…in the process they were both left off a combined 11 ballots.

Another fun fact, Johnson, Martinez, Smoltz and Biggio make up the largest class since 1955, when Joe DiMaggio headlined a class of four inductees.

Joining the four new inductees on July 26 at the Clark Sports Center…Ford C. Frick Award winner Dick Enberg and The J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient Tom Gage.

Here’s the breakdown among the top vote getters.

• Randy Johnson (97.3%, first time on ballot)
• Pedro Martinez (91.1%, first time on ballot)
• John Smoltz (82.9%, first time on ballot)
• Craig Biggio (82.7%, 74.8% last year)

• Mike Piazza (69.9%, 62.2%)
• Jeff Bagwell (55.7%, 54.3%)
• Tim Raines (55.0%, 46.1%)
• Curt Schilling (39.2%, 29.2%)
• Roger Clemens (37.5%, 35.4%)
• Barry Bonds (36.8%, 34.7%)
• Lee Smith (30.2%, 29.9%)
• Edgar Martinez (27.0%, 25.2%)
• Alan Trammell (25.1%, 20.8%)
• Mike Mussina (24.6%, 20.3%)
• Jeff Kent (14.0%, 15.2%)

To see how actual numbers stacked up against the much hyped 2014 Hall of Fame Ballot Collecting Gizmo…click HERE.