NEW YORK (AP) — Steroid-tainted stars Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa were denied entry to baseball's Hall of Fame,
with voters failing to elect any candidates for only the second time in four decades.
Bonds received just 36.2 percent of the
vote, Clemens 37.6 and Sosa 12.5 in totals announced Wednesday by the
Hall and the
Baseball Writers' Association of America. They were appearing on
the ballot for the first time and have up to 14 more years
to make it to Cooperstown.
Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, topped the 37 candidates with 68.2 percent of the 569 ballots, 39 shy
of the 75 percent needed. Among other first-year eligibles, Mike Piazza received 57.8 percent and Curt Schilling 38.8
Jack Morris led holdovers with 67.7 percent. He will make his final ballot appearance next year, when fellow pitchers Greg
Maddux and Tom Glavine along with slugger Frank Thomas are eligible for the first time.
It was the eighth time the BBWAA failed to elect any players. There were four fewer votes than last year and five members
submitted blank ballots.
"The standards for earning election to the
Hall of Fame have been very high ever since the rules were created in
1936," Hall
of Fame President Jeff Idelson said. "We realize the challenges
voters are faced with in this era. The Hall of Fame has always
entrusted the exclusive voting privilege to the baseball writers.
We remain pleased with their role in evaluating candidates
based on the criteria we provide."
Bonds, baseball's only seven-time Most Valuable Player, is the sport's season and career home run leader. Clemens, the only
seven-time Cy Young Award winner, is third in career strikeouts and ninth in wins.
"It is unimaginable that the best player to ever play the game would not be a unanimous first-ballot selection," said Jeff
Borris of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, Bonds' longtime agent.
The previous two times 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 were chosen the following years when they
achieved the 75 percent necessary for election.
"Next year, I think you'll have a rather
large class and this year, for whatever reasons, you had a couple of
guys come really
close," Commissioner Bud Selig said at the owners' meetings in
Paradise Valley, Ariz. "This is not to be voted to make sure
that somebody gets in every year. It's to be voted on to make sure
that they're deserving. I respect the writers as well as
the Hall itself. This idea that this somehow diminishes the Hall
of baseball is just ridiculous in my opinion."
Three inductees were chosen last month by
the 16-member panel considering individuals from the era before
integration in 1946:
Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, umpire Hank O'Day and barehanded
catcher Deacon White. They will be enshrined during a ceremony
in Cooperstown on July 28.
Bonds has denied knowingly using
performance-enhancing drugs and was convicted of one count of
obstruction of justice for
giving an evasive answer in 2003 to a grand jury investigating
PEDs. Clemens was acquitted of perjury charges stemming from
congressional testimony during which he denied using PEDs.
Sosa, who finished with 609 home runs, was among those who tested positive in MLB's 2003 anonymous survey, The New York Times
reported in 2009. He told a congressional committee in 2005 that he never took illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
The BBWAA election rules say "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."
An Associated Press survey of 112 eligible
voters conducted in late November after the ballot was announced
indicated Bonds,
Clemens and Sosa would fall well short of 50 percent. The big
three drew even less support than that as the debate raged over
who was Hall worthy.
BBWAA president Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle said she didn't vote for Bonds, Clemens or Sosa.
"The evidence for steroid use is too strong," she said.
As for Biggio, "I'm surprised he didn't get in."
MLB.com's Hal Bodley, the former baseball columnist for USA Today, said Biggio and others paid the price for other players
using PEDs.
"They got caught in the undertow of the steroids thing," he said.
Bodley said this BBWAA vote was a "loud and clear" message on the steroids issue. He said he couldn't envision himself voting
for stars linked to drugs.
"We've a forgiving society, I know that," he said. "But I have too great a passion for the sport."
Mark McGwire, 10th on the career home run list, received 16.9 percent on his seventh try, down from 19.5 last year. He received
23.7 percent in 2010 — a vote before he admitted using steroids and human growth hormone.
Rafael Palmeiro, among just four players
with 500 homers and 3,000 hits along with Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and
Eddie Murray,
received 8.8 percent in his third try, down from 12.6 percent last
year. Palmeiro received a 10-day suspension in 2005 for
a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, claiming it was
due to a vitamin vial given to him by teammate Miguel Tejada.
The election leaves the Hall without both baseball's career home run leader and its all-time hits king, Pete Rose. There were
four write-in votes for Rose, who never appeared on the ballot because of his lifetime ban that followed an investigation
of his gambling while manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
Morris increased slightly from his 66.7 percent last year, when Barry Larkin was elected. Morris could become the player with
the highest-percentage of the vote who is not in the Hall, a mark currently held by Gil Hodges at 63 percent in 1983.
Several players who fell just short in the
BBWAA balloting later were elected by either the Veterans Committee or
Old-Timers'
Committee: Nellie Fox (74.7 percent on the 1985 BBWAA ballot), Jim
Bunning (74.2 percent in 1988), Orlando Cepeda (73.6 percent
in 1994) and Frank Chance (72.5 percent in 1945).
The ace of three World Series winners, Morris finished with 254 victories and was the winningest pitcher of the 1980s. His
3.90 ERA, however, is higher than that of any Hall of Famer.
Two-time NL MVP Dale Murphy received 18.6 percent in his 15th and final appearance.