When the 2011 Baseball Hall of Fame voting results are announced on Wednesday, Colorado Rockies fans will find out how much support Larry Walker has among the Baseball Writers' Association of American to be inducted into Cooperstown. This is Walker's first year of eligibility, having retired after the 2005 season as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Under Hall of Fame voting rules, a player must be on 75 percent of the ballots to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, while 5 percent is needed to stay on the ballot for the following year. No one expects Walker to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, which makes his first vote a gauge of how voters will take into account the effects of Coors Field. While former Rockies Dante Bichette and Andres Galarraga have both appeared on the ballot (2007 for the former, 2010 for the latter), neither received the 5 percent minimum of ballots to make it past their first time on the ballot.
In addition to Walker, the complete ballot includes: Roberto Alomar, Carlos Baerga, Jeff Bagwell, Harold Baines, Bert Blyleven, Bret Boone, Kevin Brown, John Franco, Juan Gonzalez, Marquis Grissom, Lenny Harris, Bobby Higginson, Charles Johnson, Barry Larkin, Al Leiter, Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Mark McGwire, Raul Mondesi, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, John Olerud, Rafael Palmeiro, Dave Parker, Tim Raines, Kirk Rueter, Benito Santiago, Lee Smith, B.J. Surhoff and Alan Trammell.
Roberto Alomar (73.7 percent) and Bert Blyleven (74.2 percent) are at least two players expected to reach the 75 percent threshold to receive induction into the Hall of Fame. For complete bios on all the players, visit the Baseball Hall of Fame website.