MLB All Star Game tickets

Five-time American League batting champion Wade Boggs, eight-time All-Star Darryl Strawberry and two-time National League batting champion Willie McGee are among 12 players who, for the first time, will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot.Ryne Sandberg, Bruce Sutter, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and Rich Gossage head the returning players on the ballots. Among the newcomers announced Monday are three-time All-Star outfielder Chili Davis, 1993 American League Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell, three-time All-Star reliever Jeff Montgomery, four-time All-Star pitcher Mark Langston and longtime knuckle baller and ESPN.com analyst Tom Candiotti.Once again Pete Rose, will not be on the ballot because he is on baseball's permanently ineligible list, the result of a 1989 agreement that followed an investigation of his gambling. Rose, who previously this year, admitted he gambled on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s, must gain replacement within the next year to appear on the 2006 ballot, the final year he would be eligible for the BBWAA vote.

While Rose applied for reinstatement in 1997, baseball commissioner Bud Selig has not ruled and will not give a schedule for a decision.Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley were chosen to the Baseball Hall of Fame last year, while Sandberg was 71 votes short of the necessary 75 percent needed for election. Boggs, a 12-time All-Star during 18 major league seasons with New York Yankees, Tampa Bay, and Boston, is 23rd on the career list with 3,010 hits, and he was the only player to homer for his 3,000th hit. Boggs had a .328 career average and set an American League record by reaching 200 hits for seven straight seasons, and won two Gold Gloves at third base. McGee, a four-time All-Star outfielder, was a .295 career hitter with 2,254 hits and 352 steals. Strawberry hit 335 homers during a 17-year Major League career with the New York Mets and Yankees, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Strawberry was suspended from baseball in 1995 and 2000 for testing positive for cocaine and in 1999 following an arrest on a possession charge. He served 11 months in prison in 2002-03 for violating probation on a cocaine possession charge. Voting ends December 31st and the results will be announced January 4th. Writers who have been members of the BBWAA for 10 consecutive years or more are eligible for vote.