Hall of Fame calls for Barry Larkin but not Edgar Martinez

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• BASEBALL: Seattle's Martinez distant 7th in Hall of Fame voting

  BASEBALL: Seattle's Martinez distant 7th in Hall of Fame voting

  NEW YORK — Barry Larkin has been elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.

  The shortstop received 86 percent of the vote in balloting announced today by the Baseball Writers' Association of America , well above the necessary 75 percent. Larkin was on the ballot for the third time after falling 75 votes short last year.

  Edgar Martinez, who spent his entire career with the Seattle Mariners, finished seventh in the balloting with 209 votes. He received 36.5% of the vote in his third year on the ballot, which represents a small increase from the 32.9% support Martinez got in 2011 (191 votes).

• Hometown guy Larkin elected to Hall of Fame

  Hometown guy Larkin elected to Hall of Fame

  Barry Larkin has been elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame, it was announced Monday, while tainted sluggers Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro fell far short of the votes required for induction.

• Edgar prepared to wait for call to Hall

  Edgar prepared to wait for call to Hall

  For Edgar Martinez, patience was always a weapon. You don't amass a career .418 on-base percentage -- one of his prime Hall-of-Fame calling cards -- by swinging wildly at the first pitch that comes along.

  Retired from the Seattle Mariners for eight years, and a Hall of Fame candidate for three, Martinez is going to need every ounce of patience he can muster. Because if Martinez is going to get to Cooperstown, it's likely to be a long, slow, maddening process.

  The big difference, of course, between Martinez the player and Martinez the candidate is that this time, success is largely out of his control. He has already made his case during an 18-year career that left him as one of 20 players in major league history with a career batting average over .300, on-base percentage over .400 and slugging percentage over .500.

• Randy Johnson, Dan Wilson to be inducted into Mariners Hall of Fame

  Randy Johnson, Dan Wilson to be inducted into Mariners Hall of Fame

  The Mariners announced two more inductees – Randy Johnson and Dan Wilson – to the team’s hall of fame. Johnson and Wilson will become the fifth and sixth members when they are inducted in a ceremony on July 28 before the Mariners-Kansas City Royals game.

• It’s Valentine’s day in Boston

  It’s Valentine’s day in Boston

  Players eating fried chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse during games. If it didn’t bother Bobby Valentine as a baseball lifer, it would certainly offend his sensibilities as a self-proclaimed gourmet chef.