Bonds falls short; Jeter voted to Cooperstown
Longtime Giants great Bonds denied entry into Hall of Fame for 8th time
Barry Bonds, down to the final three outs of his candidacy on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, struck out again on Tuesday.
Baseball’s greatest player of the past quarter-century, Bonds’ path to Cooperstown, continues to be compromised by performance-enhancing drug accusations as he was named on 60.7 percent of the Baseball Writers Association of America ballots, still well shy of the necessary 75 percent for the hallowed hall.
The former Giants star, who left Major League Baseball in 2007 as its all-time home run leader with 762, will appear on the ballot just two more times before dropping off.
However, the Hall’s doors did swing open for another iconic star Tuesday when former Yankees great Derek Jeter was voted in after earning 99.7 percent of the vote. Jeter, a 14-time All-Star and five-time world champion, was just one vote shy of joining former Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera, who last year became the first player to be unanimously selected to the Hall of Fame. Only one of the 397 voters didn’t cast a vote for Jeter.
Meanwhile, former Rockies slugger Larry Walker, who won three National League batting titles, was also inducted as he received 77.6 percent of the votes while making it by just six votes.
Jeter and Walker will be joined at the induction ceremo
nies in New York on July 26 by former catcher Ted Simmons and the late Marvin Miller, former head of the players association, both of whom were elected by the Modern Baseball Era Committee last month.
Despite Bonds missing the cut for the eighth straight year, he is still trending toward induction as his voting totals have increased for the sixth straight year. He was named on 59.1 percent of the ballots last year after appearing on 56.4 percent of them two years ago. The good news for Bonds, a seven-time MVP winner who remains in the conversation of the game’s all-time greats, Hall of Fame history has shown that rarely has a player received at least 50 percent of the vote and not get in eventually.
Then again, there’s never been such a polarizing candidate like Bonds, the most feared player in the game for a large chunk of his 22-year career, and then the game’s most reviled after being accused of taking shortcuts (PEDs) to further stardom.
Still, Pete Rose, another baseball pariah who’s been banned from the game the past 30 years for illegal gambling, feels not having Bonds in Cooperstown is a great injustice.
“If Barry Bonds isn’t a Hall of Famer, you shouldn’t have a Hall of Fame,” Rose told 95.7 The Game after Bonds didn’t make the cut a year ago.
Although Bonds never failed a drug test, he was implicated in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) scandal and later convicted of obstruction of justice in 2011 before having that charge dropped. He testified he unwittingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
We can point to more than one of Bonds’ records to argue for his inclusion into the Hall, but there’s no denying there’s one paragraph on writers’ ballots that’s keeping him out:
“Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”
So, instead of voting for the man who was a 14time All-Star, 12-time Silver
Slugger, and eight-time Gold Glove winner, voters are still casting a vote for morality by not including Bonds on their ballots.
Roger Clemens, arguably the top pitcher in baseball over the past 25 years, has been joined at the hip with Bonds in suspicion and castigation, also failed to gain entry into Cooperstown for the eighth straight year. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who was also widely suspected of PED usage, was named on 61.0 percent of the ballots Tuesday.
Ex-Diamondbacks and Red Sox pitching star Curt Schilling earned the thirdmost votes (70 percent) but came up 20 votes shy of making it in on his eighth try. Slick-fielding former Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel, an 11-time Gold Glove winner, earned 52.6 percent of the vote.
Jeff Kent, another former Giants infielder, saw his vote percentage total jump from 18 percent last season to 27.5 percent on Tuesday.
Onetime A’s slugger Jason Giambi, who admitted to steroid usage during his career, was named on just six of the 368 ballots in his first year of eligibility. He and former A’s teammate Eric Chavez, who received just one vote, will fall off the ballot since they came up short of the necessary 5 percent of the vote to remain eligible.
Should both Bonds and Clemens fail to receive at least 75 percent of the vote in their final two tries, there’s still another road to Cooperstown open for them — the Today’s Game veteran’s committee, which meets twice every five years. Bonds and Clemens would be eligible for the 10-person ballot in December of 2023 for potential inclusion in the 2024 class.
The committee voting process has been more forgiving for many candidates who were overlooked for various reasons, as just 12 votes from the 16-person committee is needed to join Cooperstown’s elite. Former A’s designated hitter Harold Baines was voted in last year by the committee, along with closer Lee Smith.
For Bonds, Clemens, and others who came up short on Tuesday, next year’s potential ballot won’t include any new, sure-fire Hall of Famer. That could make things easier.