Billy Wagner’s excruciating wait ends in Baseball Hall of Fame glory

Billy Wagner’s wait for that one special call from the Baseball Hall of Fame was excruciating. After all, this was the fire-balling left-handed closer’s 10th and final year on the ballot.

Tensions were high after missing enshrinement by just five votes last year, so when that call finally came on Tuesday night, Wagner broke down into tears.

“Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m very impatient,” Wagner said. “As the road got closer to this point in time, there were times where I was very optimistic. But last year and missing out and the hype of everybody saying no one has missed out when they’ve gotten this close and waiting for the other shoe to fall, it’s not been an easy 10 years to sit here and swallow a lot of things you have to swallow.”

Ichiro, Yankees ace CC Sabathia, Mets’ Billy Wagner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Consider the wait well worth it as enshrinement only solidifies what was already common knowledge: This is one of the greatest southpaw relievers who has ever lived.

Wagner’s career WHIP of 0.998 is the lowest among all retired relievers with at least 700 innings pitched, while his 2.31 career ERA is the lowest among retired lefties with at least 500 innings pitched in the live ball era.

His 903 innings pitched is the lowest of any Hall of Famer, but it does not diminish his standing as one of the greatest strikeout hurlers ever. He racked up 1,196 punchouts in his career, which included a historic 1999 season with the Houston Astros that featured a then-MLB record 14.95 strikeouts per nine innings.

Billy Wagner Baseball Hall of Fame — NEW YORK – AUGUST 19: Billy Wagner #13 of the New York Mets pitches to the Colorado Rockies at Shea Stadium August 19, 2006 in the Queens borough of New York City. The Mets defeated the Rockies 7-4. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Wagner spent the first nine years of his career with the Astros — the team that will likely be on his cap on his plaque in Cooperstown — before a two-year stint with the Philadelphia Phillies. He signed with the New York Mets ahead of the 2006 season, where he continued to cement his Hall-of-Fame legacy.

“I joined the Mets because going to New York would be one way to try to get to the Hall of Fame, and it wasn’t going to be easy when you have the greatest closer across town [in Yankees closer and fellow Hall of Famer, Mariano Rivera],” Wagner said. “I also knew coming from a small town, the environment was going to be difficult.”

He handled it more than well. He racked up 40 saves in 2006 as the stopper of a team that advanced to the NLCS. In there-plus seasons with the club, he posted a 2.37 ERA and 101 saves, which ranks sixth in franchise history.

Then again, taking the tough road was commonplace for Wagner.

When he was seven years old growing up in Virginia, he broke his right arm twice, which forced him to learn how to throw left-handed. He was drafted out of Division III Ferrum College in 1993 as a starting pitcher before being moved to a reliever after being called up by the Astros in 1995.

In his first year of eligibility, he garnered just 10.2% of the vote, then watched it steadily rise over the next decade.

Not only is he the first left-handed reliever in the Hall of Fame, he is the first Division III college product, and the first candidate in the modern election era to gain induction after receiving less than 15% of the vote three times.

“Everything I do has been a blessing,” Wagner said. “To look back and see that I’m the first left-handed reliever, the first Division III, the first guy from the state of Virginia in the Hall of Fame as a baseball player, those things that are meaningful.”