Major League Baseball
Molitor, Eckersley headline Hall ballot

By The Associated Press

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NEW YORK — Mariners hitting coach Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley headline the 15 newcomers on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Ex-most valuable players Kevin Mitchell and Terry Pendleton, Cy Young winner Doug Drabek and World Series star Joe Carter also are on the ballot, released yesterday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Mitchell played for the Mariners in 1992.

Bruce Sutter, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Spokane native Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith and Rich Gossage are the leading returning candidates. Gossage pitched for Seattle in 1994.

Sutter came the closest to making the Hall out of that group in last year's voting, appearing on 53.6 percent of the ballots. Gary Carter and Eddie Murray were the only players elected in 2003.

Rice (52.2 percent) and Dawson (50 percent) were the only other players to be chosen on at least half of the ballots.

To be elected, a player must appear on at least 75 percent of the ballots, which are cast by BBWAA members who have been a part of the organization for 10 or more years.

Molitor, hired by the Mariners last month to replace Lamar Johnson, had 3,319 career hits and ranks eighth on the all-time list. He batted .306, scored 1,782 runs and drove in 1,307 runs in 21 seasons. Molitor also was the MVP of the 1993 World Series for Toronto. The Blue Jays won that Series on Carter's three-run homer in Game 6 against Philadelphia.

Eckersley won the AL MVP and Cy Young awards in 1992 for Oakland with one of the greatest seasons ever by a reliever, going 7-1 with 51 saves and a 1.91 earned-run average.

Voting ends Dec. 31, and the results will be announced Jan. 6.

Notes

• The complete Hall of Fame ballot ("x" denotes a first-time-eligible player): Bert Blyleven, x-Carter, Dave Concepcion, x-Danny Darwin, Dawson, x-Drabek, x-Eckersley, x-Jim Eisenreich, x-Cecil Fielder, Steve Garvey, Gossage, Keith Hernandez, Tommy John, x-Jimmy Key, x-Dennis Martinez, Don Mattingly, x-Mitchell, x-Molitor, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, x-Randy Myers, Dave Parker, x-Pendleton, Rice, x-Juan Samuel, Sandberg, Smith, x-Dave Stieb, Sutter, x-Bob Tewksbury, Alan Trammell and Fernando Valenzuela.

• Billy Connors, 62, vice president of player personnel for the New York Yankees, underwent quadruple bypass surgery in Tampa, Fla. Yankees spokesman Rick Cerrone called the surgery on the ex-Mariners pitching coach "successful."

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