The day Twins fans have been waiting all month for has finally arrived, as the 2024 MLB Hall of Fame class is set to be announced tonight.
Fans have actually been waiting much longer than this year's voting cycle. Joe Mauer made his Major League debut back in 2004, which started a trajectory that is projected to land him with a bust in Cooperstown among the greatest players in baseball history.
When will Baseball Hall of Fame vote be announced?
BBWAA members spent the last month and change submitting their ballots, and tonight is when we finally get to hear the full results. We've been tracking it for the entire month on social media but the 2024 Hall of Fame class will be officialy revealed on television.
Here's when and where to tune in:
- Date: Tuesday, Jan. 23rd, 2024
- Start Time: 6pm ET
- TV Channel: MLB Network
- Live Stream: MLB.com | MLB.tv | Fubo
Many of which were revealed as they were sent in. Writers aren't obligated to reveal who they voted for, but a pretty large majority of them do -- which is always good for some spicy debate.
Take, for instance, USA Today's Bob Nightengale who voted for Omar Vizquel but not Mauer. The same goes for essentially everyone who left Mauer off their ballot, which wasn't enough to keep him out but is now a veil of shame.
Is Joe Mauer a Hall of Famer?
You betcha.
Mauer was already a Hall of Famer in the eyes of most Twins fans (not the weirdos who argued against it for -- well, I'm not really sure why).
Throughout his career Mauer won five Silver Sluggers, three Gold Gloves, went to six All-Star Games, and won the AL MVP in 2009. He finished as a career .306 hitter with over 2,000 hits and was a three time AL batting champion. His 55.2 career WAR that ranks seventh among catchers all-time, he had his number retired less than a year after he hung up his mitt, and was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2023.
Mauer already had the numbers to get into the Hall of Fame, but he has the lore of having played his entire career with the Twins. He went from hometown hero to delivering on his promise to such a great degree that it has landed him in Cooperstown.
Above everything else, the cherry on top of his iconic -- and sometimes underrated -- career is the fact that he got into the Hall of Fame on his first try.
He becomes just the third Twins player in history to get in on the first ballot, joining icons Kirby Puckett and Rod Carew.
When is the 2024 MLB Hall of Fame induction?
The Hall of Fame ceremony will take place on July 21st this year, which falls on a Sunday this summer.
As is the case every year, the whole shebang will happen at Cooperstown, NY and one would expect a bevy of both Twins legends and fans to be on hand to watch Mauer get inducted if he ends up getting enough votes.