[VanillaGorilla]

Four players enter this year, 2 hitters and 2 pitchers. This is the strongest class since the inaugural class with 3 first ballot entries.

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Ken Griffey Jr, The Kid, Kid Nintendo, Junior....whatever you call him, now he is HOFer.

As the 4th pick in 1947, the Cincinnati Reds drafted the home town favorite. He played with him until he was taken by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft prior to the 1969 season, joining Barry Larkin, there. He retired after appearing in just one game in 1970.

Griffey is among the HOF elite.

7 times he hit 50 HRs in a season with a career high of 59 in 1959. 6 times he drove in at least 150 runs in a season, both feats are unequaled.

He twice won the Triple Crown. 3 times he won a GG and he went to 13 All-Star Games.

He won 6 MVPs and a ROY.

Career numbers? He posted a career npa OPS+ of 160 with a slash line of 289/371/571. The slg% number is 2nd best all-time.

He collected 3061 hits. And BTW, he hit 829 HRs. The HR total is second best all-time. The player who is the career leader played at the same time in the NL as Griffey. That Griffey won 2 triple crowns and 6 MVPs is understating his greatness due to the competition he had.

6 times he led the league in HRs, 8 times in RBI, 5 times in R, and 2 batting titles (the triple crown years) with a career high of .361 in 1953.

His 2460 career RBI are second best all-time. His 1930 runs scored is 9th best.

In 2 WS he hit .359 with 3 HRs in 39 ABs. He won one title, in 1951.

Griffey's numbers well exceeded the Hall averages in all categories, and he gets in on the First Ballot Standard.

Black Ink: 112 (26)
Gray Ink: 326 (162)
HOFm: 455 (235)
HOFs: 74 (61)

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Gus Zernial is also a first ballot inductee. His path is unique. He was not selected by the computer, and did not make it through standard screening. When no the players on the spreadsheet met the current Hall standards, he got in by virtue of having the 8th best slg% of all time, .538. There are three active players ahead of him on the list, so he may move up on the list if they do not maintain their paces.

Zernial twice hit 50+ HRs in a season, hitting a career high of 57 in 1957 (as Griffey hit 59 in '59? As Maris hit 61 in '61 RL??).

The 10th player taken in the 1953 draft, Zernial won the ROY in 1954 for the NY Giants when he hit 36 HRs.

Once he hit the age of 30, he bounced aroung the league, changing teams 7 times.

In the 1961 WS, playing for the White Sox, he hit 3 HRs in 7 ABs in a losing effort. Following that performance, the White Sox figured it might be a good idea to use him not as a bench player, but a starter. The following season he led them to the WS again, and this time won. He hit 57 HRs in the regular season while teammate Jody Davis hit 50.

After 1962, he found himself bouncing around as a part time player, but producing whenever he got a chance. His 357 HRs ties him for 28th on the all-time list with Tommy Heinrich and fellow HOFer Brett Lawrie.

A 271/329/538 slash line gave him a 140 npa OPS+ for his career.

With nearly 30% of hits resulting in HRs, his 1291 career hits do not tell the story of his value.

I was not familiar with the RL Zernial. He passed away in January, 2011. I found some mentions of him being a good guy, so I will say that he was a good guy in this world, also, and the Hall is happy to welcome him.

Zernial is a floor breaker, but the Hall Standards are going up with the induction of this class. His metrics here are very close to RL.

Black: 8 (8)
Gray: 70 (58)
HOFm: 64 (28)
HOFs: 21 (18)