This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

One reason I choose not to vote for the Hall of Fame is that it gives me the freedom to critique the electorate as an objective outsider. I've explained

Miller School baseball coach Billy Wagner, known to the outside world as the best lefthanded closer in MLB history, is a Baseball Hall of Famer.

Billy Wagner received 82.5 percent of the tally from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, after he missed by just five votes last year.

The path to the National Baseball Hall of Fame was far from easy for Billy Wagner. It was a grueling, decade-long wait filled with challenges, but ultimately, it became a triumph worth celebrating. Making history as the first left-handed reliever to earn induction,

To gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Billy Wagner completed a climb few candidates have managed. Wagner, the former Houston Astros closer, attained the 75% support from voters required for election in his final year of eligibility on the writers’ ballot.

This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

After falling five votes short of Baseball Hall of Fame last year, Billy Wagner is hopeful on his final year on ballot.

In his 10th and final year on the ballot, former Astros closer Billy Wagner earned is place in Cooperstown, N.Y. in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Other bits of intrigue ahead of Tuesday's 6 p.m. announcement: Will CC Sabathia be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is this the year Billy Wagner gets in?

The Baseball Hall of Fame has announced the results of this year’s voting, with Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner exceeding the necessary 75% threshold for induction into the Class of 2025.

MLB players who are eligible to make the Baseball Hall of Fame receive 10 chances (as long as they don't dip below five percent of the vote) to get a plaque in