Bonds, Rocket in limbo
Gain votes but not support
The voters have spoken: An asterisk will continue to hover over the front door of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Congratulations to the four 2018 inductees — Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman — and 2019-bound Edgar Martinez (David Ortiz, you’ll be the second DH elected), but last night’s results confirmed the Baseball Hall of Fame will remain an institution that is unable and unwilling to face its past and future both honestly and directly.
That’s because despite a slight gain in voting, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens still will not stride across the stage in Cooperstown, N.Y., this July or some July in the near future.
Their absence leaves the edifice more hollowed than hallowed, a shrine with a history that remains both incomplete and scrubbed.
Clemens and Bonds are two legendary players whose feats and credentials top nearly anyone else already enshrined in the Hall, yet the stain of their association, proven or not, with performance-enhancing drugs has blocked them from what should have been a red-carpeted, signed-and-sealed entry.
While this pleases the likes of Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, who mailed a screed to voters in November about the dystopia that would result if unnamed “cheaters” were elected, he should probably take another tack next year — skywriting, perhaps — since his letter did not stop some perceptible momentum in favor of Clemens and Bonds.
This year, its sixth on the ballot, the duo took a small step forward in a slow-motion, far-from-certain march toward Cooperstown.
Clemens received 57.3 percent of the vote and Bonds 56.4, their highest percentages yet, but they only were a slight increase from last year (54.1, 53.8) when the two cleared 50 percent for the first time. This year, of the 422 ballots cast, Clemens received 242, while Bonds got 238.
As an aside, it’s baffling to speculate how and why four Clemens voters, with his seven Cy Youngs, would deny a vote to Bonds, with his seven MVPs and the most home runs (762) in history. What’s the difference?
For the record, of the 248 voters who opted to share their ballots with Ryan Thibodaux, Bonds and Clemens received an equal number of votes, 161, for 63.9 percent.
When Clemens and Bonds first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2013, they received 37.6 and 36.2 percent, respectively. Eight votes separated the two then, so maybe there’s progress on that front.
The two topped 40 percent in 2016, and last year they broke 50.
They have a long, long way to go if they hope to break 75 percent on any of the next four ballots.
They have a growing number of supporters, which is quite encouraging.
Their detractors might yet change their minds, which frequently does happen as worthy candidates get second and third looks in their final year. That happened with Jim Rice in 2008, Tim Raines last year, and it should work in Martinez’ favor next year. The all-time great designated hitter received 70.4 percent of the vote, a healthy leap from 58.6 percent last year.
Considering how close Bonds’ and Clemens’ percentages are to what Martinez collected last year, some might think that they are due for a similar leap next year, and that 2020 would be their year.
If only it were that easy and assured.
Every eligible voter has a right to deem fitness for the Hall of Fame by whatever standards he or she chooses, and if the taint of PEDs on Clemens and Bonds is too much for some, so be it. I happen to disagree, but as we know, the debate about the steroids era still rages.
What does not help the case of Clemens and Bonds is that they face resistance from their own ranks of baseball greats.
Morgan’s impassioned letter last November was a vivid reminder of how real the threat of Clemens and Bonds gaining entry feels to some. Morgan did not have the courage to name Bonds and Clemens as personages he could not share a dais in Cooperstown with, but he did threaten a boycott if “players who failed drug tests, admitted using steroids, or were identified as users in Major League baseball’s investigation into steroid abuse, known as the Mitchell Report” are admitted.
“It’s gotten to the point where Hall of Famers are saying that if steroid users get in, they’ll no longer come to Cooperstown for induction ceremonies or other events,” Morgan wrote. “Some feel they can’t share a stage with players who did steroids. The cheating that tainted an era now risks tainting the Hall of Fame too. The Hall of Fame means too much to us to ever see that happen. If steroid users get in, it will divide and diminish the Hall, something we couldn’t bear.”
Morgan’s worries about division and diminution are no doubt sincere, but I sure don’t share them, and at least 56.4 percent of the voters this year didn’t either.
I sincerely hope Clemens and Bonds break the 75 percent barrier before their time is up on the ballot.
If they don’t, that’s grounds for a boycott with just cause.