Mike Mussina elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Mike Mussina was tonight announced as the 23rd player, coach, or front office executive with modern-day ties to the Baltimore Orioles to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Mussina, 50, played 18 Major League seasons from 1991-2008, including his first 10 seasons with the Orioles. He currently holds the best all-time winning percentage by a qualifying Orioles pitcher with a minimum of 140 decisions (.645), and ranks among the club's all-time leaders in strikeouts (second, 1,535); wins (third, 147); ERA (fifth, 3.53); starts (fifth, 288); innings pitched (sixth, 2009.2); shutouts (eighth, 15); and complete games (10th, 45).

A five-time American League All-Star (all with Baltimore), Mussina won seven Gold Gloves, including four with the Orioles, and finished inside the top six of Cy Young Award voting nine times, seven with Baltimore. As a member of the Orioles, Mussina led the American League with a .783 winning percentage (18-5) in 1992; wins (19); shutouts (four); and walks per 9.0 innings (2.03) in 1995; games started (36) in 1996; and innings pitched (237.2) in 2000. He tossed three one-hitters with the Orioles and struck out 15 batters in a game twice. In six career postseason starts with the Orioles, Mussina went 2-1 with a 2.53 ERA (12 ER/42.2 IP). He was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2012.

Mussina ranks 20th all-time in Major League history with 2,813 strikeouts, tied for 32^nd in wins (270), 33^rd with a .638 winning percentage (270-153), and 34^th in games started (536). Mussina, a Williamsport, Pa. native, was originally selected by the Orioles in the first round (No. 20 overall) of the 1990 First-Year Player Draft out of Stanford University.

Mussina will be formally inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame during the ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y. on Sunday, July 21, at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Six Orioles have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with an official plaque depicting them in an Orioles uniform, including Frank Robinson (elected in 1982), Brooks Robinson (1983), Jim Palmer (1990), Earl Weaver (1996), Eddie Murray (2003), and Cal Ripken Jr. (2007).

Mussina joins Harold Baines and Lee Smith as 2019 inductees to have played for the Orioles. Baines played parts of seven seasons (1993-95 and 1997-2000) with the Orioles, batting .301/.379/.502 (638-for-2121) with 99 doubles, 107 home runs, 304 runs, and 378 RBI over 666 games. In 2,830 career Major League games, he hit .289/.356/.465 with 2,866 hits, 488 doubles, 49 triples, 384 home runs, 1,299 runs, and 1,628 RBI. Smith pitched one season (1994) for the Orioles, going 1-4 with a 3.29 ERA (14 ER/38.1 IP) and a Major League leading 33 saves in 41 appearances, while being named an All-Star. In 1,022 career appearances, he went 71-92 with a 3.03 ERA (434 ER/1289.1 IP), 1,251 strikeouts, and 478 saves. He retired as baseball's all-time leader in saves, and currently ranks third all-time.

Other Hall of Famers with modern-day Orioles ties include Robin Roberts (1976), George Kell (1983), Luis Aparicio (1984), Hoyt Wilhelm (1985), Reggie Jackson (1993), Roberto Alomar (2011), Tim Raines Sr. (2017), Vladimir Guerrero (2018), Jim Thome (2018), Harold Baines (2019), and Lee Smith (2019), managers Dick Williams (2008) and Whitey Herzog (2010), and executives Lee MacPhail (1998), Pat Gillick (2011), and John Schuerholz (2017).

Sixteen others to have played or managed for the Orioles in the early days of Baltimore's rich baseball heritage are also enshrined in the Hall of Fame including Frank "Home Run" Baker, Charles "Chief" Bender, Roger Bresnahan, Dan Brouthers, William "Candy" Cummings, Robert "Lefty" Grove, Edward "Ned" Hanlon, Rogers Hornsby, Hughie Jennings, Wee Willie Keeler, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard, Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity, John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson and George Herman "Babe" Ruth.