Who Are the 'Griffey Three' Who Voted Against Jr.?

Ken Griffey Jr. resoundingly got into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, and controversy surrounds the pick. Not over Griffey's qualifications—630 home runs, 10 straight Gold Gloves, not a whiff of steroid scandal, and, yes, even a candy bar made his selection a no-brainer. Instead, it's over the three sportswriters who voted against him. Griffey received 437 of 440 votes for a 99.3 percentage that surpassed Tom Seaver's as the highest ever. The votes are cast by sportswriters, and so far the trio who voted against Griffey have yet to come forward. "These are civilized times, right?" writes Phil Rogers at MLB.com. "It would probably be the wrong thing to do a freedom of information request and find the names of the Junior Griffey Three."

The nay votes amount to "an egregious oversight for which three as-yet-anonymous voters will have to answer—to themselves, if no one else," writes Larry Stone at the Seattle Times. Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated is among those who think they should out themselves. "If you are a MLB HOF voter who does not vote for Ken Griffey today, I think you owe it to your readers to be transparent w. the vote & why," he tweeted. The Washington Post notes that one explanation being floated is that because no player—not even Babe Ruth—has ever been elected unanimously, some think it should stay that way. Mike Piazza was the only other player elected on Wednesday's ballot, with a mere mortal 83%. A footnote: Admitted steroid user Mark McGwire got just 12.3% and is now out of the running for the Hall because that was his 10th failed try, notes the New York Times. (More Baseball Hall of Fame stories.)