Patrick Saunders:

Steroids and Coors Field are among the messy questions hiding below the surface in baseball Hall of Fame voting.

Baseball celebrated Wednesday with the election of four worthy Hall of Famers: third baseman and switch-hitter extraordinaire Chipper Jones; gentleman slugger Jim Thome; free-swinging Vladimir Guerrero, who never saw a pitch he couldn’t clobber; and closer Trevor Hoffman, the first pitcher to notch 600 saves.

It was a no-muss, no-fuss day for America’s pastime, free of controversy and the dark cloud of steroids.

Sure, there remain some curmudgeonly, old-time members of the Baseball Writers Association of American who can’t bring themselves to vote for Hoffman, the thought being that almost all relievers should be kept out of Cooperstown. Still, Hoffman scored 79.9 percent of the vote, putting him above the 75 percent required for induction. When word came down, San Diego celebrated and Petco Park began blaring the song that brought fans to their feet every time Hoffman took the mound — AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells.”

All in all, Wednesday was a day for baseball to pat itself on the back. For the third time in four years, four players were elected into the Hall. They join Jack Morris and Alan Trammell from the Modern Era committee, producing the biggest Hall of Fame player class in history.

Still, there are some messy questions hiding just beneath the surface — one national, one local.

Many predicted this would be the year slugger Barry Bonds and righthander Roger Clemens, two high-profile suspects from the steroids era, would take significant steps toward Cooperstown. It didn’t happen. Bonds, the all-time home run leader and the game’s only seven-time MVP, scored 56.4 percent, only a slight bump from the 53.8 percent he got last year. Clemens, the only seven-time Cy Young Award winner, got 57.3 percent this year vs. 54.1 percent last year.

Each man has four years left on the BBWAA ballot, but it’s starting to look like they won’t make it, even though younger voters are more likely to be be forgiving about steroids.

The local angle, of

BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

course, revolves around former Rockies all-stars Larry Walker and Todd Helton, as well as the curse of Coors Field. Walker made a nice jump in voting this year, rising from 21.9 percent in 2017 to 34.1 percent. Yet it’s difficult to see Walker reaching 75 percent by 2020, his 10th and final year on the writers’ ballot.

Clearly, the taint of Coors Field and its perceived impact on a player’s statistics continue to color voters’ perception of Rockies players. Helton, who becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time next year, is going to face the same tough, uphill battle as Walker.

Helton finished his 17year career with a .316 batting average, 2,519 hits and 369 homers. For the record, almost every eligible candidate who had a career .300 batting average, 2,500 hits and 300 home runs has been enshrined. But as Walker has discovered year after year, baseball at altitude can bring a man down.