No One Going Into Baseball Hall of Fame?
Barry Bonds. The all-time home run king for major league baseball. Roger Clemons. The most dominant pitcher of a generation. Both are eligible for Baseball's Hall of Fame voting going on today. Under normal circumstances, you'd be talking about them as near-unanimous choices. Yet during the steroids era, NEITHER are expected to be voted in this afternoon...and no one else is either.
Ex Minnesota Twin Jack Morris is in his 14th year of eligibility, yet is likely to fall short of the 75% needed to get in. As is ex Astro Craig Biggio who stuck around long enough to get 3000 hits (as did Rafael Palmeiro) but that's not expected to pass muster with voters either. And what about arguably the best hitting catcher in history in Mike Piazza? Because he's 'rumored' to have been linked with performance enhancing drugs, so he's not getting in either.
Is it time to change voting practices? Change voters?? Or do we vote in all the steroids era players and just put them in one wing of the shrine? I completely understand that by baseball's rules and standards, Bonds, Clemons, Mark McGwire and so many others, cheated. Yet I don't think you can tell the true history of the game without including these players and many of their contemporaries. Vote them all in. Get Pete Rose in there. If you need to asterisk their plaques to sleep at night at keep your antiquated standards intact, fine. But baseball's unwillingness to change with the times and that includes their Hall of Fame voting practices, is just a part of the reason it's not America's sport anymore...and may not even be in the top 5.
Here's a link to see all the players being considered on this year's Baseball Writers of America Hall of Fame Ballot.
And to update this morning's story: For the first time since 1996, no players were elected to the Hall of Fame by baseball writers.
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Sammy Sosa were among those who failed to achieve the 75 percent vote necessary for election.
Since 1965, the only years the writers didn't elect a candidate were when Yogi Berra topped the 1971 vote by appearing on 67 percent of the ballots cast and when Phil Niekro headed the 1996 ballot at 68 percent. Both eventually made it to Cooperstown.
Player Votes Pct
Craig Biggio 388 68.2
Jack Morris 385 67.7
Jeff Bagwell 339 59.6
Mike Piazza 329 57.8
Tim Raines 297 52.2
Lee Smith 272 47.8
Curt Schilling 221 38.8
Roger Clemens 214 37.6
Barry Bonds 206 36.2
Edgar Martinez 204 35.9
Alan Trammell 191 33.6
Larry Walker 123 21.6
Fred McGriff 118 20.7
Dale Murphy 106 18.6
Mark McGwire 96 16.9
Don Mattingly 75 13.2
Sammy Sosa 71 12.5
Rafael Palmeiro 50 8.8
Others receiving votes: Bernie Williams, 19; Kenny Lofton, 18; Sandy Alomar Jr., 16; Julio Franco, 6; David Wells, 5; Steve Finley, 4; Shawn Green, 2; Aaron Sele, 1.