Today marks the 45th anniversary of the vote that created the designated hitter so it seems like as good a time as any to check in on Edgar Martinez’s effort to make the Hall of Fame.
Over the past month, the Seattle Mariners star’s grip on enshrinement seems to have slipped a bit. He needs 75 percent of the votes to qualify. On Dec. 14, Martinez had 83 percent of the 47 ballots that were made public according to ballot tracker Ryan Thibodaux. As of Thursday morning, Martinez had 80.4 percent of 179 ballots.
While its still good enough to earn a spot in Cooperstown, less than half of the ballots are known at this point.