No one was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year
For the first time since 2013, baseball’s Hall of Fame voters elected … no one.
Curt Schilling? Just short. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens? Still nope and nope. New-to-the-ballot stars Torii Hunter and Mark Buehrle? Not even close.
Seventy-five percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America is needed to get into Cooperstown. Schilling was the closest at 71.1 percent, just 16 votes shy. Clemens (61.6) and Bonds (61.8) were next. All three of them now head to the ballot next year for their 10th and final year.
Scott Rolen (52.9) and Todd Helton (44.9) showed impressive gains that may put them on track for Cooperstown one day, but they’re still quite a ways off.
It’s only the third time in the past 25 years that no one was elected by the writers. The other time came in 1996, when Phil Niekro and Tony Perez were the top vote-getters.
Schilling or nothing in 2021
This year was largely believed to be Schilling or nothing, as he entered as the top vote-getter left from last year. The class of first-year eligibles weren’t particularly impressive. And even Schilling was viewed as a long shot to actually reach 75 percent.
While Bonds and Clemens are controversial for their believed connections to steroids, Schilling hasn’t done himself any favors by broadcasting his political beliefs. While the Hall of Fame is certainly full of Republicans, Schilling has gone further and further to the extreme right since his playing days ended.
He’s shared racist and transphobic memes that eventually got him fired from ESPN, promoted white supremacists on his podcast and most recently endorsed on Twitter the Jan. 6 insurrection efforts at the U.S. Capitol.
Some voters reportedly even asked the Hall of Fame if they could withdraw their votes for Schilling after Jan. 6. Ballots were due Dec. 31.
Bonds, Clemens get one more chance
The other two big controversial names on the ballot also have one more year to get 75 percent from Hall of Fame voters. They continue to climb, but with one year left, their cases are looking tougher since they didn’t yet cross the 70 percent threshold.
They did increase from last year, but barely with Bonds gaining 1.1 percent and Clemens gaining .6 percent, but there’s still a sizable gap to make up.
If not, their fate will be left up to the Hall of Fame’s era committees, which reconsider the candidacy of certain players every year. Those panels are made up of 16 players, executives, historians and writers.
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