Billy Wagner’s wait for that one special call from the Baseball Hall of Fame was excruciating. After all, this was the fire-balling left-handed closer’s 10th and final year on the ballot.
Tensions were high after missing enshrinement by just five votes last year, so when that call finally came on Tuesday night, Wagner broke down into tears.
“Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m very impatient,” Wagner said. “As the road got closer to this point in time, there were times where I was very optimistic. But last year and missing out and the hype of everybody saying no one has missed out when they’ve gotten this close and waiting for the other shoe to fall, it’s not been an easy 10 years to sit here and swallow a lot of things you have to swallow.”
Ichiro, Yankees ace CC Sabathia, Mets’ Billy Wagner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Consider the wait well worth it as enshrinement only solidifies what was already common knowledge: This is one of the greatest southpaw relievers who has ever lived.
Wagner’s career WHIP of 0.998 is the lowest among all retired relievers with at least 700 innings pitched, while his 2.31 career ERA is the lowest among retired lefties with at least 500 innings pitched in the live ball era.
His 903 innings pitched is the lowest of any Hall of Famer, but it does not diminish his standing as one of the greatest strikeout hurlers ever. He racked up 1,196 punchouts in his career, which included a historic 1999 season with the Houston Astros that featured a then-MLB record 14.95 strikeouts per nine innings.
Wagner spent the first nine years of his career with the Astros — the team that will likely be on his cap on his plaque in Cooperstown — before a two-year stint with the Philadelphia Phillies. He signed with the New York Mets ahead of the 2006 season, where he continued to cement his Hall-of-Fame legacy.
“I joined the Mets because going to New York would be one way to try to get to the Hall of Fame, and it wasn’t going to be easy when you have the greatest closer across town [in Yankees closer and fellow Hall of Famer, Mariano Rivera],” Wagner said. “I also knew coming from a small town, the environment was going to be difficult.”
“Everything I do has been a blessing,” Wagner said. “To look back and see that I’m the first left-handed reliever, the first Division III, the first guy from the state of Virginia in the Hall of Fame as a baseball player, those things that are meaningful.”
Kcassman