COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- Before he plopped down on a director's chair in the Baseball Hall of Fame's plaque gallery to field questions, Ivan Rodriguez marveled at the bronze images of the greatest names of baseball's past hanging on the walls.
''Here's my new home,'' Rodriguez said Tuesday. ''I think it's great just to be part of the family because I think all the Hall of Famers, now, we are a family.''
In his first year on the Baseball Writers' Association of America's Hall of Fame ballot, Rodriguez received 76 percent of the votes. He became the second catcher elected on the first ballot, joining his boyhood idol, former Cincinnati Reds star Johnny Bench.