When Brian Kenny first started covering Baseball Hall of Fame election results more than three decades ago, he wasn’t sure how many people would be interested enough to tune in.
“At the time, I thought, ‘Look, I know I’m wonking out. I know this is my passion, this is crazy,’” he recalled in a recent interview with The Sporting News. “I love this, but I don’t know if anybody else does.’”
Surprisingly enough, the phone lines would light up with callers desperate to chime in about the merits of their favorite players or where others fell short of the existing standards for the institution. And that passion for evaluating the greatest baseball players in a historic context has only grown in each year of Kenny’s ongoing coverage since.
On January 21, Kenny will broadcast the results of the 81st Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWA) Hall of Fame election from the plaque gallery in Cooperstown, New York, as part of eight hours of coverage on MLB Network. It will be just one of several days of coverage on the network surrounding the reveal, which will also include video essays, analysis and visits to the network studio from newly-elected Hall of Famers.
The extent of MLB Network’s coverage is one sign of how interest in the results has grown in recent years. The network became the exclusive outlet for the results in 2009 and began Integrating the Baseball Hall of Fame itself into the broadcast more recently.
“A few years ago, we asked ourselves, ‘How do we take this day to the next level?’” explained MLB Network’s senior vice president of production Marc Caiafa. “And we came up with the idea to announce the results from the Plaque Gallery in Cooperstown. It’s a great visual that has worked out really well. Brian and the crew have really bought in.”
Greg Amsinger will co-anchor the broadcast with Kenny and the network’s coverage will also feature commentary from Bob Costas, Jon Morosi, Joel Sherman, Tom Verducci, Jayson Stark and many others.
“We’ve built up the coverage and I think there’s just room for more people who are interested in this,” Kenny said. “We still love arguing about players who are Hall of Fame worthy, we still love having these debates… I think that’s why it resonates so deeply with so many fans from a nostalgic standpoint, but also an analytic standpoint, to do comparisons through the generations.”
First ballot, unanimous baseball hall of famers in the 2025 class
Even among the select few players who are chosen for the Hall of Fame, there are a few methods of induction that can separate them in fans’ minds. Those who receive the requisite 75% of the votes from the BBWAA in their time appearing on a ballot — known as “first-ballot” Hall of Famers — are such a group. Last year, Adrián Beltré and Joe Mauer were the only two first-ballot inductees.
Then, a relatively new special nod from voters could be a unanimous selection, with Mariano Rivera as the only player to ever earn 100% of the votes on his first ballot appearance in 2019.
This year, Kenny projected that all-time hits leader Ichiro Suzuki has a chance to join both clubs, though he was quick to point out that it shouldn’t make a difference how a player is inducted.
“Ichiro was always getting in first ballot,” Kenny said.
According to a tally of the publicly-released ballots, 2007 Cy Young Award winner CC Sabathia is likely to join Suzuki as the only other first-ballot hall of famer in the incoming class. Though Sabathia’s case for induction appears clear cut for voters, Kenny noted that a first-ballot induction would be a mark of how the standards for great players are changing.
“I wrote an essay on CC, I think when he retired, possibly a few years back, and at the time, I thought I had to make a case for him because I thought … by the normal markers that Hall of Fame voters used to look at, he would fall short,” Kenny explained. “So, I am quite surprised to see that he is getting this much backing right away. But good, I’m glad people could see clear of the old norms.”
Voters have been notoriously fickle about voting pitchers into the Hall of Fame in recent years, but Sabathia’s durability as a southpaw could separate his case from those of his peers. Sabathia maintained a 3.76 ERA across more than 3,500 innings in 19 big-league seasons, including a World Series title with the New York Yankees in 2009.
Last chance, controversial names on the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot
If a ballot name is unable to secure at least 5% of the votes or has appeared on the ballot 10 times without earning the requisite 75% of votes to be elected, their name will be removed from future ballots.
This year, 400-save closer Billy Wagner faces a final chance to be inducted and Kenny predicted he will finally make the cut.
“Wagner is right there,” he said. “He should be getting in… He was very close last year.”
Kenny added that he expects 1,500 hit, 1,500 run center fielder Carlos Beltrán and 10-consecutive Gold Glove Award winner Andruw Jones to be inducted as well, bringing the total class to four or five names.
Two former Philadelphia Phillies teammates, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins, are unlikely to receive inductions this year, but Kenny noted that Utley is a “lock” to be inducted at some point while Rollins is a “borderline case” but his “down ballot favorite.”
Whatever the results, the Baseball Hall of Fame induction is an annual chance for fans to revisit the accomplishments of their favorite players, debate where they stand within Major League Baseball’s century-plus history and hear inductees reflect on their own careers in the wake of receiving the game’s most prestigious honor.
“It’s because we like talking about the history of baseball, which is difficult sometimes,” Kenny said. “But it’s not when you’re talking about the Hall of Fame. I think that’s what the Hall of Fame does for baseball. It keeps it alive — the history alive in our minds.”
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