Top 5 MLB Hall of Fame classes of the 21st century ft. 2006 and 2018

One of the biggest achievements that an MLB player could possess in his lifetime is to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. After all the trials and sacrifices that a player and his family go through, a trip to Cooperstown further cements and legitimizes the fact that one has left on the game of baseball.

Established in 1936, and voted on by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, a who's who of the game's greatest have been inducted into the Hall. From Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth in the original class — to Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia this year, a total of 351 players, managers, and baseball personalities have been enshrined in the prestigious site.

Since the start of the 21st century, names like Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, and Randy Johnson have all been inducted into the hallowed halls. Let's now take a look at the best Hall of Fame cases of this century.

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5) Class of 2006

Kicking off the list is the Hall of Fame Class of 2006. What made the selections historic was the establishment of the "Special Committee on African-American Baseball."

Although Negro League trailblazers such as Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson paved the way for African-Americans in the Hall in the 1970s, it wasn't until 2006 that a majority of the selections was from the famed baseball league.

In the aforementioned year, Bruce Sutter headlined the class alongside 17 other selections, including baseball executive Effa Manley — the first and so far, only female inductee to the Hall.

4) Class of 2014

Headlined by Atlanta Braves pitching duo Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, the class of 2014 included an interesting mix of MLB players and managers. Yankees manager Joe Torre, Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa, long-time Braves boss Bobby Cox, and one of the most prolific hitters of the 1990s in Frank Thomas, were all enshrined during the year.

3) Class of 2015

In the following year's Hall of Fame Class, 10-time MLB All-Star and five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson was inducted to the Hall alongside two other great hurlers in the form of Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez and Braves great John Smoltz. In addition, Astros Hall of Famer and seven-time All-Star Craig Biggio was also inducted into Cooperstown to round up a strong HOF class.

2) Class of 2019

Much like the theme of the '15 class, the selections during the 2019 edition were also filled with some of the game's greatest hurlers. Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, and Lee Smith were all inducted into Cooperstown alongside slugging stars Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines.

What sets this group, however, is that it was headlined by Mariano Rivera — the only Hall of Fame member to have been inducted unanimously (100%) on the first ballot.

1) Class of 2018

Topping off the list from the best Hall of Fame class of the 21st century is that of the 2018 group, which included some of MLB's best slugging talent. Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero, and Alan Trammell shared north of 1,700 home runs amongst themselves in what was the most stacked class of the century so far.

To round it up, three-time MLB World Series-winning pitcher Jack Morris and Trevor Hoffman, to whom the NL Reliever of the Year will be named after, were inducted into the same class.

Edited by Daniel Santiago