NEW YORK — New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter was voted into baseball's Hall of Fame on Tuesday, coming within one vote of being a unanimous pick to enter the sport's pantheon of greats.

Jeter was chosen on 396 out of 397 ballots cast by the Baseball Writers Association of America, just missing out on matching the achievement of former team-mate and unanimous pick Mariano Rivera last year.

Jeter's 99.7% total votes was the second highest in history after Rivera, and comfortably eclipsed the 75% threshold required to enter the Hall of Fame.

Former Expos, Rockies and Cardinals right fielder Larry Walker joined Jeter in the Hall of Fame voting. The duo will be inducted at a ceremony in Cooperstown, New York on July 26.

Jeter was widely expected to be a first ballot inductee in recognition of a 20-season career that included five World Series victories.

"Every accolade that has been bestowed on Derek throughout his career has been earned and deserved," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said.

"He was a captain and champion in every sense of the word, a man who embodied our traditions and expectations with an unmistakable grace and dignified resolve."

But there was more disappointment for several players who have been held over from previous years after failing to meet the 75% threshold.

Pitcher Curt Schilling earned 278 votes (70%) in his eighth ballot appearance while home run king Barry Bonds and Boston Red Sox pitching ace Roger Clemens also missed out.

Strip Astros, Sox of World

Series titles: LA council

The Los Angeles City Council called on Major League baseball to strip the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox of their scandal-tainted World Series crowns on Tuesday and award the championships to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In a largely symbolic resolution passed by the LA City Council, members called for the 2017 and 2018 World Series championships to be awarded to the Dodgers, who lost in consecutive years to the Astros and Red Sox.

Baseball has been reeling since MLB commissioner Rob Manfred issued his report into a sophisticated and illegal sign-stealing scheme used by the Astros throughout 2017 and during the World Series.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch and team chief Jeff Luhnow were both suspended for a year and then sacked by the team following publication of the report.

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, an assistant coach at the Astros in 2017 who helped devise the scheme, was later fired by the club and is also expected to face sanction from Major League baseball.

"Athletes that don't cheat want to compete fairly and want to earn their title," said LA City councilor Gilbert Cedillo, one of the two officials who tabled the resolution.

"What we're looking at is what the record will reflect, and clearly cheaters should not be rewarded. We don't want this to become to the new normal.

"I can't fathom ... winning a title by cheating and then putting it up on the mantle as if it was legitimate."

Although the MLB has faced widespread calls to strip the Astros of their 2017 title, analysts say any such move is highly unlikely with Manfred unwilling to risk a dispute with the player's union.Both Bonds and Clemens were implicated in doping during baseball's drug-tainted era of the late 1990s, a likely reason for their failure to make the Hall of Fame. — AFP