A three-time most valuable player in the National League, Schmidt was named on a record 444 of the record 460 ballots submitted Monday by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Schmidt won 10 Gold Gloves for fielding superiority and hit 548 home runs, seventh on the all-time list.
His vote percentage of 96.52 was the fourth highest, surpassed only by Tom Seaver's 98.94, Ty Cobb's 98.23 and Hank Aaron's 97.83. There were 38 eligible players, but only Schmidt mustered the required 345 votes or 75 percent.
The solo election "magnified the honor immensely," Schmidt said at a news conference at Veterans Stadium in Philadelhia. "I'm just now starting to get goose bumps."
Schmidt's former Philadelphia teammate, Steve Carlton, was the only player elected last year.
Niekro, a 318-game winner in his third year of eligibility, drew 286 votes. Sutton, whose 324 victories in 23 seasons are more than 43 of the 53 pitchers in the Hall have, received 264 votes in his second year on the ballot.
Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice, in his first year, got 137 votes, and former New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, in his 15th and last year, received 30.
Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader who is suspended from baseball for gambling and is ineligible for the Hall, received 14 write-in votes.
Schmidt had a lifetime batting average of .267. He had 1,595 RBI, a record for third basemen.
Hideo Nomo, a fastball pitcher with 1,204 strikeouts in the last five years, left Japan's professional Kintetsu Buffaloes on Monday over a contract dispute and expressed hope of playing U.S. Major League baseball, The Associated Press reported.
Sports newspapers said Nomo, 26, might play for the Seattle Mariners. If he joins a Major League team, he would be the first Japanese to do so since hurler Masanori Murakami played for the San Francisco Giants in 1964-65.
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