Andruw Jones calls it 'a great honor' to reach Hall of Fame after nearly falling off ballot

ATLANTA (AP) — As one of the most accomplished center fielders in history, Andruw Jones made a practice of catching line drives that would have reached the gap against any other outfielder.

On Tuesday, Jones showed he could also make up ground in Hall of Fame balloting.

Jones, who won 10 Gold Gloves with the Atlanta Braves, was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame Tuesday alongside another center fielder, Carlos Beltrán. Jones was in the Dominican Republic, where he was playing in a golf tournament, when he saw the announcement.

He made it in his ninth of 10 possible years of eligibility and was included on 78.4% of ballots to beat the 75% threshold. Jones was included on only 7.3% of ballots in his first year.

“It was very close for me to be off the ballot,” Jones said. “To go all the way from 7% and be in the Hall of Fame is a great honor.”

Jones thanked the Braves “for giving me the chance to play the game that I love” and his longtime manager Bobby Cox, “who believed in me.”

Jones ranked second in the majors when he hit 51 homers in 2005, finishing second in the NL MVP voting. He also became the youngest player to hit a home run in a World Series before memorably going deep again in his next at-bat.

Jones was 19 years, 5 months old in the 1996 World Series opener at Yankee Stadium when he beat Mickey Mantle’s mark for the youngest player with a Series homer by 18 months. Jones homered against Andy Pettitte in the second inning and Brian Boehringer in the third inning of a 12-1 rout. He became only the second player to homer in his first two Series at-bats, following Oakland's Gene Tenace in 1972.

Jones finished with 434 homers but was known first for his defense. His Gold Gloves came in a stretch of 10 consecutive seasons beginning in 1998. Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. are the only other center fielders to win double-digit Gold Gloves.

Jones remembered Mays approaching him in a batting cage and telling him he was the best center fielder of all time.

“He was the greatest center fielder of all time,” Jones said of Mays. “For him to tell me that was a great honor. ... I took it to heart. I wanted to go out there and be the best at my position. For him to say that, it was something very special to me.”

Jones is the first native of Curacao to make the hall.

He was a five-time All-Star, but his .254 career batting average is the second-lowest for a position player voted to the Hall of Fame, just ahead of catcher Ray Schalk's .253.

Jones had 1,289 RBIs and 152 stolen bases in 17 seasons with Atlanta (1996-2007), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2008), Texas (2009), the Chicago White Sox (2010) and the Yankees (2011-12). He finished his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League from 2013-14.

Jones joins Braves teammates Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones and Fred McGriff, along with Cox and general manager John Schuerholz, in the hall.

Though on Tuesday he spoke with pride about Atlanta's run of 14 consecutive division championships from 1991-2005, Jones made his debut with the Braves too late to share in the team's 1995 World Series championship. He never won a title until playing in Japan.

Jones said he looks forward to sharing his Hall of Fame celebration in Cooperstown with his former teammates who are already enshrined.

“Now I get a chance to be on the same podium and have the same legacy with them," Jones said. “It is a great honor.”

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