Jeff Bagwell not selected to Baseball Hall of Fame

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Ken Griffey Jr. has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame with the highest voting percentage ever, and Mike Piazza also is headed to Cooperstown.

Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines fell short in results announced Wednesday.

A star slugger of the Steroids Era never tainted by accusations of drug use, Griffey was on 437 of 440 votes in his first appearance on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot. His 99.3 percentage topped Tom Seaver's 98.84 in 1992.

Piazza, on the ballot for the fourth time, received 365 votes.

A player needs 75 percent to gain election. Bagwell missed by 15 votes and Raines by 23 in totals announced Wednesday.

After about 100 writers who no longer are active lost their votes under new rules, there were significant increases for a pair of stars accused of steroids use. Roger Clemens rose to 45 percent and Barry Bonds to 44 percent, both up from about 37 percent last year.

DOES BAGWELL DESERVE IT?

Bagwell has 449 career home runs. He's close to Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, or "Yaz." Yaz had 452 home runs, but Bagwell did it in more than 1,000 fewer games.

Bagwell also has a career batting average of .297. That's just under the career averages of Hall of Famers Joe Dimaggio and Mickey Mantle. They both had career averages of .298.

When it comes to RBIs, Bagwell is 48th all-time with 1,529. That's tied with baseball legend Tris Speaker.

And this is a big stat -- Bagwell had an OPS of 948. That number is a combination of his, on-base and slugging percentages. Anything near or over 1,000 is considered really high. His OPS is higher than Hall of Famer Willie Mays.