He played in only one World Series, as a fourth starter for the 1969 Amazin' Mets and was barely a .500 pitcher over the course of his playing days. But his longevity stood for something, and all those strikeouts kept adding up. Seven no-hitters are kind of hard to ignore as well. Still, the Cooperstown inductions are becoming more like the Oscars each year. The voting process is more flawed than the Olympic bids.
Many voters have their own agendas.
The Cooperstown voting is handled by the Baseball Writers Association, which means that the process has become payback time for some people with a grudge. The first-ballot status has become one of their axes to grind. Because of this arcane pettiness, there will never be a unanimous selection for the baseball Hall of Fame. These keepers of the gates will cry out that if Babe Ruth wasn't a unanimous pick, then no one should be. Both Ryan and Seaver were polite to the press, so the voting reflected the writers' acceptance via their first-ballot selection.