The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is very much like a gated community, and in order to gain residence, a player must be exceptionally good at politicking with the gate-keepers. Bert Blyleven needed over a decade to gain entry; Ron Santo never did, though he unequivocally ought to have. Finding a way to woo 75 percent of those baseball writers who have votes can be a tricky needle to thread.
Fascinatingly enough, no one has ever gotten 100 percent of the vote, nor even 99 percent. Many, many players have scraped by with between 75 and 80 percent. A round dozen have come within two percentage points of the margin, garnering 77 percent or fewer of the votes. Those men are the subject of this article, which will break down what kept their numbers so low, who should never have made it in at all, and who deserved more votes than they got. Read on.