- Ken Griffey Jr., whose timeless swing and grace in the outfield made him one of the most exciting players in baseball history, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in voting results announced on Wednesday. Griffey, in his first year of eligibility, got a record 99.3 percent of the vote of Baseball Writers' Association of America members, easily surpassing the required 75 percent needed for induction into the Cooperstown, New York-based baseball shrine. When told via telephone that he had earned 437 votes of the 440 cast, the highest percentage in an election that dates to 1936, a visibly excited Griffey said on the MLB Network: "I'm a little nervous now." Piazza, who spent the bulk of his career with the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, was elected in his fourth year of eligibility a year after falling just short of the 75 percent threshold required for election.