Andy Pettitte lives to fight another year, but he faces quite a climb to immortality.
In his maiden voyage on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, the beloved Yankees and Astros’ left-hander received 42 votes, 9.9 percent of the electorate, on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, thereby exceeding the 5 percent threshold required to get another look in 2020.
According to FanGraphs writer Jay Jaffe, the record for the longest leap in this voting belongs to Bert Blyleven, who registered 14.1 percent in 1999, his second year on the ballot, and gained his Hall plaque 12 years later with 79.