Advertisement

2019 MLB Hall of Fame inductions: How to watch, inductees

By Jake Elman
Edgar Martinez (L), Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. File Photo by George Napolitano/UPI
Edgar Martinez (L), Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. File Photo by George Napolitano/UPI | License Photo

July 20 (UPI) -- Six Major League Baseball legends, including former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend.

Rivera and former teammate Mike Mussina join Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines, Lee Smith and the late Roy Halladay as the newest honorees in Cooperstown, N.Y. Voters elected Rivera as the first unanimous selection in Baseball Hall of Fame history.

Advertisement

"That's special to me, and I carry [it] with dignity and humbleness that I don't deserve it," Rivera said. "I don't consider myself better than anybody else -- I don't assume that I was better than anybody -- but one thing I did, I did my best."

Rivera had a Major League record 652 saves from 1995 to 2013. He also went 8-1 with a 0.70 ERA and recorded 42 saves in 96 postseason games.

Mussina was a five-time All-Star starting pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles and Yankees from 1991 to 2008. He went 270-153 with a 3.68 ERA and recorded his only 20-win season as a 39-year-old in 2008.

Martinez hit .312 with 309 home runs with the Seattle Mariners from 1987 to 2004. Halladay won two Cy Young Awards and pitched two no-hitters -- including a perfect game -- for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010.

Halladay pitched to a 203-105 record and 3.38 ERA from 1998 to 2013. He spent his first 12 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays before spending his final four years in Philadelphia.

Halladay, Martinez, Mussina and Rivera were all elected by voters in January. The Today's Game Committee chose Baines and Smith in December.

Rivera and Halladay made the Hall of Fame on their first try. Mussina was inducted in his sixth year and Martinez needed 10 years on the ballot. Martinez would have fallen off the ballot if he was not inducted this year.

Advertisement

Halladay and Mussina will not have logos on their plaques. Baines (White Sox), Martinez (Mariners), Rivera (Yankees) and Smith (Cubs) will, however.

Halladay died in a 2017 plane crash. He is only the sixth player to be elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America after his death.

Longtime baseball writer Jayson Stark, now with The Athletic, will be honored after winning the J.G. Taylor Spink Award. The award recognizes a sportswriter for "meritorious contributions to baseball writing."

Former Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees announcer Al Helfer also will be inducted into the Hall of Fame after winning the Ford C. Frick Award.

How to watch

What: 2019 MLB Hall of Fame

When: 1:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, July 20

Where: Cooperstown, N.Y.

TV: MLB Network

Stream: MLB.com

Latest Headlines