Evan Petzold | Detroit Free Press
Two former Tigers are on the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, which was announced Monday: Torii Hunter and Gary Sheffield.
Neither spent the majority of their careers with the Tigers.
The results of the votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will be announced Jan. 26 on MLB Network. The 2021 induction ceremony, which will include the 2020 class, will take place July 25 in Cooperstown, New York.
[ Will we see any Tigers reach Hall of Fame in next decade? ESPN says yes ]
Hunter is one of 11 first timers on the ballot, along with Mark Buehrle, A.J. Burnett, Michael Cuddyer, Dan Haren, LaTroy Hawkins, Tim Hudson, Aramis Ramirez, Nick Swisher, Shane Victorino and Barry Zito.
Fourteen players have returned to the ballot from previous years: Sheffield, Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Omar Vizquel, Scott Rolen, Billy Wagner, Todd Helton, Manny Ramirez, Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones, Sammy Sosa, Andy Pettitte and Bobby Abreu.
From 2018: Alan Trammell, Jack Morris stay cool while reaching baseball immortality
To stay on the ballot for the next year, players must get at least 5% of the votes. To be inducted, players must be selected on 75% of the ballots. Sheffield, who is on the ballot for the seventh time, got 121 votes and was on 30.5% of ballots in 2020.
Torii Hunter
Hunter, 45, played for the Tigers in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, securing one of his five All-Star Game appearances in ’13. That season, he hit .304 with 37 doubles, five triples, 17 homers and 84 RBIs in 144 games.
The following year, Hunter had a .286 batting average, 17 homers and 83 RBIs in 142 games for the Tigers. After becoming a free agent, he finished his career with the Twins, where he played 12 seasons (1997-2007, 2015). The Twins drafted him No. 20 overall in the 1993 draft from Pine Bluff High School in Arkansas.
After his first stint in Minnesota, Hunter spent five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels from 2008-2012. He made two All-Star appearances in L.A.(2009, 2010) and two others with the Twins (2002, 2007).
Hunter won nine Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers as an outfielder. In his 19-year career, he played 2,372 games with a .277 batting average, 353 home runs and 1,391 RBIs.
[ Snub doesn’t change facts: Lou Whitaker deserves to be Hall of Famer ]
Gary Sheffield
Near the conclusion of his 22-year career (from 1988-2009), Sheffield took the field for the Tigers in the 2007 and 2008 seasons. He played 247 games, hitting .247 with 44 home runs and 132 RBIs.
Sheffield, 51, played six seasons for the Florida Marlins, four for the Los Angeles Dodgers, four for the Milwaukee Brewers, three for the New York Yankees, two for the Atlanta Braves, two for the San Diego Padres, two for the Tigers and one season as a 40-year-old for the New York Mets.
The Brewers drafted Sheffield No. 6 overall in the 1986 draft from Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida. He was a nine-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger. He won the 1997 World Series with the Marlins, and he secured the NL batting title in 1992 with a .330 batting average.
Sheffield played 2,576 games in his career, finishing with a .292 batting average, 509 homers and 1,676 RBIs. He was mentioned in the Mitchell Report for his involvement in the 2004 BALCO scandal for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Evan Petzold is a sports reporting intern at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.