It took 59 rounds of voting to elect the great Cubs second baseman (to go along with the great Cubs shortstop/first baseman and the great Cubs third baseman previously elected), but in a closely contested round, Ryne Sandberg was chosen as the 68th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Sandberg and the voting after the jump.

Most Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, baseball-reference.com version) in the NL, 1982-1993
1. Ryne Sandberg 62.73
2. Ozzie Smith 62.71
3. Barry Bonds 60.0
4. Tony Gwynn 51.5
5. Dwight Gooden 47.1

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Most Home Runs As #2 Batter in the Batting Order, MLB History
1. Ryne Sandberg 186
2. Derek Jeter 139
3. Jay Bell 135
4. Robin Yount 131
5. Alex Rodriguez 121

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Highest Power-Speed Number For A Single Franchise, MLB History
1. Willie Mays 442.1 for the Giants
2. Barry Bonds 363.1 for the Giants
3. Hank Aaron 361.6 for the Braves
4. Craig Biggio 341.8 for the Astros
5. Ryne Sandberg 309.9 for the Cubs

(Power-Speed Number is the harmonic mean of the hitter’s home runs and his stolen bases)

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–Ryne Sandberg appeared on 27 ballots this round, 38% of those submitted, the most support he’d ever received in a Circle of Greats round. He received 24 votes (30%) in his first appearance on the ballot, way back in our 10th COG round. Then he didn’t top 15 votes again until Round 60, when he reached 20 votes, which was his recent high water mark until his breakout to induction level in this Round 68.

–Sandberg’s success this round might not have come as a huge surprise, though. In last week’s balloting, Ryne came in third, behind only inductee Bob Feller and first-time candidate Lou Boudreau.

–Boudreau received exactly the same 15 votes this round as he did last round. But with 50 votes that had gone to Bob Feller in the 1917 balloting up for grabs, the 15-vote support level that got Boudreau second place last round got him only eighth place this round.

–Eddie Murray topped 25% support for the first time since his second appearance on the ballot, way back in our Round 15. That new support now gets Eddie off the “bubble” for the first time in many rounds. Craig Biggio, Whitey Ford and Pee Wee Reese were all also over the 25% support level this round, but they already had some eligibility built up. Harmon Killebrew and Kevin Brown each fell a single vote short of the 25% threshold, just missing getting off the bubble.

–With Sandberg ascendant, the number of players on the holdover list declines from thirteen to twelve. With Murray moving up to two rounds of assured eligibility, the number of holdovers at the immediate risk we call the bubble, declines from eight to seven. Which means we are clearing some room for another redemption round, coming soon.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1916 Round 1 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.