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SEATTLE -- Edgar Martinez's career was ultimately about enduring and utlimately winning people over with his understated excellence, so why should his Hall of Fame bid be any different?

Martinez finished eighth in the 2011 voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Wednesday as he was named on 32.9 percent of the 581 Hall of Fame ballots cast, leaving the former Mariners star still solidly in contention for Cooperstown in coming years.

While it takes a 75-percent vote to earn Hall of Fame induction, Martinez put up strong numbers for a second straight year and will remain on the ballot next year.And while Martinez's percentage dropped slightly from the 36.2 percent earned in his first time on the ballot in 2010, he can take encouragement from pitcher Bert Blyleven, who overcame far lower numbers and a similar second-year slip to earn induction Wednesday in his 14th try.

"You don't want to see the voting percentage go down, but I hope in the next few years it goes up and I can tell where I'm going to end up," Martinez said. "But I'll just have to wait. It looks like it's going to be a while."

Three other former Mariners drew minimal support in their first year on the ballot on Wednesday, with Tino Martinez at 1 percent, John Olerud tallying 0.7 percent and Bret Boone 0.2 percent.In Edgar Martinez's case, his percentages are plenty good enough to keep him in contention -- players named on 5 percent or more of the ballots are automatically placed on the following year's ballot -- but no guarantee that he'll eventually climb to the required 75 percent.

Boone, who played alongside Martinez for five seasons in Seattle, says the DH debate and absence of a slam-dunk 3,000-hit or 500-homer total make it a challenge for his former teammate. Martinez is just the 13th player eligible for Hall of Fame election to have posted a .300 batting average, .400 on-base and .500 slugging percentage in his career ... and 11 of the first 12 were all inducted into the Hall.

But due to his late arrival in the Major Leagues at age 27 and some injuries in his prime, he retired with 2,247 hits and 309 home runs, numbers that don't overwhelm some voters looking for more from a career designated hitter. Even one with a pair of batting titles and seven All-Star selections to his name.

"Edgar is just a tough case for people to look at," Boone said. "It's tough to get around some of the numbers, and can we do it for a DH? For me, playing with Edgar, whose business is power balance wholesale, he was one of my good friends in the game and just purely the best right-handed hitter I ever played with.

"Just watching him in his heyday was unbelievable. We'd sit there and say we should start him at the plate with two strikes just to make it fair. It's unfortunate that injuries made it impossible for him to get closer to 3,000 hits or the 400 or 500 home runs people look for. But he was the consummate pro and the best right-handed hitter I was fortunate to ever play with."

The Edgar Debate figures to continue to play out over the coming years. It took Blyleven 14 shots to get elected, with the 287-game winner finally gaining his ticket to Cooperstown on Wednesday with 79.7 percent of the vote. Second baseman Roberto Alomar was also elected -- in his second try -- with 90 percent of the vote.

For Martinez supporters, it's worth noting that Blyleven earned just 17.5 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility in 1998 and dipped to 14.1 percent his second year. It took Blyleven seven years just to reach the 35-percent level in '04, and he then gradually crept closer and closer until finally pushing through this year.

Pitcher Jack Morris is another example of a player who is gradually moving up the ladder. Morris drew 22.2 percent his first year of eligibility in 2000 and then dropped to 19.6 his second year.

But Morris has hung in there on the ballot and added support over the past decade to the point where he drew 52.3 last year and hit 53.5 percent on Wednesday in his 12th year on the ballot.

There's no guarantee Martinez will gain similar momentum in coming years, but it's certainly possible, as he has a solid core of support already from many BBWAA members.

Martinez said he watched part of the Hall of Fame show on MLB Network, but he was on the phone when the actual numbers came up. He said he's grown used to the idea he'll be in this situation for the long haul.

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