Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Of the 32 names on this year's Hall of Fame ballot, only two were approved Wednesday by baseball writers to join the immortals inside Cooperstown: Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza. They're two iconic sluggers of the 1990s with 1,057 homers between them, whose paths will cross again when they're inducted July 24.

Griffey, on his first ballot, earned 99.3 percent of the vote, a total that surpasses Tom Seaver's record of 98.84 in 1992. Griffey missed three ballots.

Piazza, in his fourth Hall of Fame campaign, received 83 percent, up from the 69.9 percent that left him outside of Cooperstown a year ago. The next highest vote totals belonged to Jeff Bagwell (71.6 percent), Tim Raines (69.8) and Trevor Hoffman (67.3).

Players need 75 percent of votes from eligible Baseball Writers Association of America members for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. This year's election included 440 ballots, down from 549 a year ago after the BBWAA pared down its electorate.

Many predicted the smaller voting panel, younger and more progressive, would help the PED-clouded cases of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the most contentious names on the ballot. Both saw their vote totals rise this year. Bonds finished at 44.3 percent up from 36.8 a year ago. Clemens earned 45.2 up from 37.5 last year. Both have a ways to go to reach 75 percent, but their eventual enshrinement looks more possible now than it had in the past.

Alan Trammell (40.9) and Mark McGwire (12.3) were on the ballot for the final time and neither did particularly well. The packed ballot mean tough calls for voters and because of that some players with legitimate Hall of Fame cases saw lackluster results. Billy Wagner, a first-timer, finished with 10.5 percent. Sammy Sosa fell to seven percent.

Nomar Garciaparra received just 1.8 percent and Jim Edmonds got 2.5 percent, which means they're now fallen off the ballot for not reaching five percent.

As for those who did make it: Griffey and Piazza are quite a pair. Griffey is baseball's first Hall of Famer to be drafted No. 1 overall, his pedigree unquestioned and the career that followed living up to the hype with 630 homers, an MVP award, 10 Gold Gloves and 13 All-Star appearances.

Piazza, meanwhile, was drafted in the 62nd round, at No. 1,390 overall. He was an against-all-odds star, who became one of the greatest offensive catchers of all time, hitting more homers than any catcher before him. He finished with 427 homers, 396 of them as a catcher.

Their paths were different to say the least, but that's what makes baseball great, doesn't it?

Griffey and Piazza, the natural and the unlikely star, they're finishing in the same place. Cooperstown.