Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza elected to baseball's Hall of Fame

Ken Griffey Jr. anf Mike Piazza have been elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced on Wednesday.

Griffey was named on a record 99.3% (437 of 440) of the ballots turned in. It was his first year of eligibility.

The previous record for highest percentage of votes belonged to Tom Seaver who was named on 98.8% of the votes in 1992.

Piazza was elected in his fourth year of eligibility, receiving votes on 83.0% of the ballots.

Of those who just missed the cut were Jeff Bagwell with 71.6% (75.0% needed for induction), Tim Raines at 69.8%, and Trevor Hoffman at 67.3%.

A glimmer of hope for players linked to performance-enhancing drugs

The biggest revelation from the voting is that more voters are warming up to the players linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

Roger Clemens was named on 45.2% of the ballots, after hovering around 35-37% in his first three years of eligibility. Barry Bonds received a similar number of votes, 44.3%. He too had been around 35-37% in each of his first three seasons on the ballot.

Mark McGwire, a debatable candidate even without the cloud of PEDs, was on just 12.3% of the ballots in his 10th year of eligibility.