Billy Wagner spent much of his youth hurling baseballs at the wall of an outbuilding at his aunt and uncle’s farm in Tazewell County.
His target as a 5-foot-5, 14-year-old was the simulated strike zone painted on cinder blocks.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown?
That had to be merely a field of a young boy’s wildest dreams.
Dream met reality Tuesday when the Southwest Virginia native and former Ferrum College pitcher was elected to the sport’s ultimate shrine by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Wagner celebrated the historic news with his wife, Sarah, and other family members and friends at his home in Albemarle County, where he serves as the head baseball coach at Miller School.
He was featured Tuesday evening in an emotional interview on “MLB Tonight” on the MLB Network.
“There’s so much involved in this than just me,” Wagner said. “My wife, pretty much throwing every pitch with me, being involved in every step through college and minor leagues. To put up with what we have to deal with. It’s a long road. There’s good times and bad times. She rode that bus the whole way. Without her, I wouldn’t be here.”
“There’s just so much I’m grateful for. When I think about what I represent from Division III to Southwest Virginia to the state of Virginia, it’s such a blessing.”
Wagner, who fell short of the 75-percent vote minimum in the 2024 balloting by five scrawny slips of paper, easily cleared the mark this year. The left-handed reliever who suited up for five Major League teams — Houston (1995-03), Philadelphia (2004-05), New York Mets (2007-09), Boston (2009) and Atlanta (2010) — appeared on 82.5% of the ballots.
Wagner’s first year on the Hall ballot was 2016 when he garnered only 10.5% of the vote, dropping to 10.2% in 2015.
He was joined in a three-man class by Ichiro Suzuki and C.C. Sabathia. Suzuki, the first Japanese player elected to the Hall, missed a unanimous total by one vote.
In December, Dave Parker and Dick Allen were elected to the Hall by the Classic Baseball Era Committee.
Wagner was in his final season of consideration for eligibility in voting by the Baseball Writers. He stated his case by recording 422 career saves over 16 seasons, ranking him No. 8 in MLB history and No. 2 all-time among left-handed pitchers.
Wearing jersey No. 13 for his entire career, he made seven All-Star teams and won MLB’s Rolaids Relief Man Award in 1999 when he notched 39 saves to go with a 1.57 ERA and 14.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
Wagner’s 1,196 career strikeouts are the most for a left-handed reliever. Of pitchers with 900 or more career innings pitched, Wagner has the highest strikeout rate per nine innings (11.9) and the lowest opponent batting average (.187) in the “live ball” era in MLB history. He had a career-high 44 saves in 2003.
Wagner was a starting pitcher in 70 games in three-plus seasons of Minor League baseball, beginning with Auburn in the Class A New York-Penn League in 1993. However, he never made a single start in his Major League career.
“It was kind of [being] the naive kid thrown into the mix,” he told the MLB Network on Tuesday. “I’d [pitched in relief] in college, but naive is a blessing. I loved being in the bullpen because I could pitch every day. It also gave me a way to stay in the games. If I was a starter I would have had four days [off]. I don’t know if I could have handled myself. I would have gone stir crazy. Being a closer and having something to be ready for every day kind of fit my personality.”
Now 53, Wagner will be one of a scant few Virginia natives enshrined when the Hall stages its 2025 induction ceremony July 27 in Cooperstown, New York.
And the hard-throwing lefty known as “Billy the Kid” represents nearly all of Virginia.
Born in Marion to teenage parents, Wagner lived with a variety of relatives as a child until he settled with aunt and uncle Sally and Jack Lamie and cousin Jeff Lamie in the small Tazewell County community of Tannersville.
The move offered Wagner stability, but along the way he broke his right arm twice while playing football. A natural right-handed thrower, the kid hardly let such a trifle become a barrier.
He converted to a left-handed pitcher, and the rest became MLB history.
Wagner starred for head coach Lou Peery at Tazewell High, striking out 116 batters in 46 innings while compiling a 7-1 won-lost record. He also played football for the Bulldogs, who won the VHSL Group AA championship in 1986. Wagner was a 5-foot-5, 130-pound freshman defensive back on Tazewell’s state champs, but he did not get a ring. He was removed from the squad at midseason by his aunt because of lagging grades in the classroom.
Despite adding some size to his frame by his senior year, Wagner was bypassed by professional scouts.
Instead, he chose to follow his cousin, Lamie, to Ferrum, where he planned to play football for head coach Dave Davis and baseball for head coach Abe Naff.
Wagner punted football after one season for good reason. As a sophomore on the baseball diamond armed with better than a 90-mph fastball, he set an NCAA Division III record by averaging 19.1 strikeouts per nine innings with 109 punchouts in 51 innings pitched for the Panthers.
Wagner was a first-team Division III All-American, setting an NCAA record by allowing just 1.58 hits per nine innings in 1993. Baseball America rated him the No. 1 college prospect leading up to the 1993 Amateur Draft.
Scouts who could not find Tannersville on a map had taken notice. Wagner was the 12th overall selection as the Houston Astros’ first-round choice. It took Wagner less than three years to make his MLB debut against the Mets on Sept. 13, 1995. 
Wagner finished his MLB career with 1,196 strikeouts and a 2.31 ERA in 853 games, retiring as an Atlanta Brave, making his final appearance in Game 2 of the 2010 National League Championship Series against the San Francisco Giants.
Wagner received other Hall of Fame honors prior to Tuesday’s lifetime highlight: Ferrum College in 1994, Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall in 2003, Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and the National College Baseball Hall in 2019.
Wagner appeared at Salem Civic Center in February 2024 as the guest speaker for the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame banquet, signing baseballs with his right hand until the last attendee left the building. He is scheduled to appear at Ferrum College’s “Step up to the Plate” baseball banquet Feb. 1 in Ferrum. 
“I want to congratulate Billy on a well-earned and deserved achievement,” Ferrum head baseball coach Eric Owens said in a release from the school. “As a former teammate and a great friend, congrats on your induction to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. This is a proud day for Ferrum College and our baseball program.”
He might have retired from pitching, but Wagner is still pitching in. He has been the baseball coach at Miller School since 2012, leading the program to successive Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association state championships from 2017-19.
Wagner also stays busy following the athletic exploits of their children, Jeremy, Will, Kason and Olivia.
Will Wagner made his MLB debut in 2024 as second baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, hitting .305 in 82 at bats in his first season. Olivia Wagner played point guard in 2023-24 for Radford University’s women’s basketball team and is now playing at Winthrop University in South Carolina.
Wagner’s thoughts Tuesday drifted back to his own childhood when he broke his right arm in a backyard football game.
MLB Network host Greg Amsinger asked Wagner just who was the kid whose tackle changed baseball history?
Turns out his name was Chip.
“I’m a big fan of Chip right now,” Wagner answered. “Who would have thought that a kid from across the street coming over to my grandmother’s house to play football with me would fall on my right arm and the next thing you know I’d be a Hall of Famer?
“If God isn’t great and have a purpose I don’t know what does.”
