Baseball Hall-of-Fame welcomes three new members for 2024

Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton headed to Cooperstown

Baseball’s Hall-of-Fame has forever been acknowledged as the most exclusive sporting shrine in North America, featuring the most transparent and oft-criticized voting process. The voluntary release of writers ballots two weeks after the announcement is an invitation to social media to second guess … and it does.

On Tuesday night, third baseman Adrian Beltre (95.1%), catcher Joe Mauer (76.1%) and first-baseman Todd Helton (79.7%) were welcomed through the doors of the iconic baseball museum located in the charming village of Cooperstown, in upstate New York. Beltre and Mauer were both named in their first year on the ballot, while Helton was forced to wait, taking his sixth kick at the elusive can. But truthfully, be it first or sixth attempt, few people remember how many years, just that you are in.

The 2024 Hall-of-Fame voting process, that, for those three candidates, resulted in baseball immortality, included an elite list of 26 former players, those with at least 10 years of servi…