Well, we may never see a Hall of Fame ballot like this ever again.
I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. For the past decade, we have had to deal with the annual debates about Player X and Y deserve to be inducted into Cooperstown despite their connections to PEDs. Some players from that era were able to breeze through on the first ballot – Ken Griffey, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, while others were off the ballot in one year.
The whole thing can be exhausting, but at the same time this is part of the fabric of Major League Baseball. The steroid era is a part of their history, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. There is an entire generation of superstars that were in the public eye and baseball would prefer to ignore it.
This class will be particularly interesting. There’s the players that are in their final year of eligibility (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling). To make things more fascinating, you have two players (Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz) that have links to PEDs that are now in their first year on the ballot.
A-Rod and Ortiz are both in media now, but it can be easy to forget how opposite their paths were at one point. Rodriguez was suspended 162 games and sued Major League Baseball. Ortiz helped lead the Red Sox to three World Series with the last one occurring right after the Boston Marathon tragedy. In 2014, these players were on complete opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of public opinion. To his credit, A-Rod served his suspension and bounced back with 33 HR during his redemption tour in 2015. But it’s impossible to ignore his level of arrogance when he was adamant about denying his steroid use. Voters will undoubtedly remember that.
In terms of success on the field, they would’ve both waltzed into the HOF. A-Rod finished with 696 home runs, 117 WAR and 3 MVPs. Ortiz finished with 541 home runs, .931 OPS and was among the most decorated players in postseason history.
And then there’s the holdovers.
Schilling came the closest in 2021. He received 71 percent of the vote – just four percent shy of the necessary amount. But after his very-public persona, it is hard to imagine enough voters changing their no’s to a yes. His 216 career wins was once regarded as a weak total for a Hall of Fame hopeful, but now it’s clear that we won’t see a starting pitcher come close to 300 wins so maybe 200 is the new threshold.
In regards to Bonds and Clemens, they both saw an uptick in voters a few years ago, but they have since plateaued at about 61%. History shows that when players are that far away from induction, they don’t make the jump.
Bonds should be in, in my opinion. He simply is the best baseball player I’ve ever seen especially from 2001-2004 when he was playing on easy mode. But my disdain for Clemens goes beyond the box score, he simply was an awful person and I would use the “character clause” to keep him out.
Beyond them, there’s a few players that I think will get in. Scott Rolen and Todd Helton both saw massive upticks last year and that tells me that they are on the right path. Billy Wagner gets unfairly criticized for his postseason resume and I think he was the best left-handed reliever of the past 20 years.
Assuming that Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Schilling don’t get in, it will be a relief to get that debate over with. Granted, we will likely hear about it with A-Rod, Ortiz and Manny for the next several years.
Down the road, I do think it’s important that baseball reserves some spot in the Hall for this era. You can’t tell the story of baseball without the 1990s and 2000s.
