--- ---  # Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza Voted to Baseball Hall of Fame by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 7, 2016 1:28 AM UTC  Ken Griffey Jr. walks out to throw the first pitch prior to the Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on July 13, 2015. Ken Griffey Jr. walks out to throw the first pitch prior to the Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on July 13, 2015.Elsa—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 7, 2016 1:28 AM UTC Ken Griffey Jr.and Mike Piazza [were elected Wednesday](http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2016/01/06/baseball-hall-fame-ken-griffey-jr-mike-piazza-tim-raines-jeff-bagwell/78376084/) into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Voters from the Baseball Writers Association of America cast their ballots for Griffey, the game’s sixth-leading home run hitter in history, and Piazza, a catcher and power-hitter, _USA Today_ reports. Griffey [sets the record](http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/01/06/ken-griffey-jr-hall-fame-voting-percentage-record-tom-seaver?xid=IFT-Trending) for the highest vote percentage in Hall of Fame history by receiving 99.32% of the votes, with 437 of the 440 ballots cast, according to Sports Illustrated. He breaks the record of 98.84% held by pitcher Tom Seaver. As _USA Today_ notes, the two players will enter the hall of fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. as opposites in some ways. Griffey’s father played 19 seasons in the major leagues, making him baseball royalty, and he was the first overall pick in the 1987 draft. In contrast, Piazza was drafted in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft, becoming the first player ever drafted that late to make it to the Hall of Fame, according to the paper. Notable players who [fell short of election](http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/01/06/hall-of-fame-ken-griffey-mike-piazza) to the Hall this year were Barry Bonds, who leads the league in all-time home runs, and Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young award winning pitcher. Both players have seen their legacies tarnished by allegations of steroid usage during their careers. Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza Voted to Baseball Hall of Fame ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4170590/ken-griffey-jr-and-mike-piazza-voted-to-baseball-hall-of-fame/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4170590/ken-griffey-jr-and-mike-piazza-voted-to-baseball-hall-of-fame/"},"headline":"Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza Voted to Baseball Hall of Fame","datePublished":"2016-01-07T01:28:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:50:56.462Z","description":"Griffey sets the record for the highest voting percentage ever received","url":"https://time.com/4170590/ken-griffey-jr-and-mike-piazza-voted-to-baseball-hall-of-fame/","keywords":["Baseball","MLB"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0275606f9b6353b/698877efab6d7702346a7dc1/gettyimages-480621910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0275606f9b6353b/698877efab6d7702346a7dc1/gettyimages-480621910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-480621910","caption":"during the Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders at the Great American Ball Park on July 13, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio.","creditText":"Elsa—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/baseball/","name":"Baseball"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4170590/ken-griffey-jr-and-mike-piazza-voted-to-baseball-hall-of-fame/","name":"Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza Voted to Baseball Hall of Fame"}}]}] ```