One door closes, another two open.
With Alan Trammell officially off the Baseball Writers Association of America’s National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, players from the 1984 World Series champion Detroit Tigers have effectively been kept out of Cooperstown, for now.
But in 2017, two new faces will be eligible for induction, both key cogs of the 2006 American League champion Tigers: Catcher Pudge Rodriguez and rightfielder Magglio Ordonez.
Rodriguez, 44, has the much better case of the two and, on paper, is a shoo-in.
In 21 seasons, Rodriguez hit .296 with 311 home runs — fourth-most by a catcher in major league history — and won 13 Gold Glove Awards and seven Silver Slugger Awards.