It's Never Gonna Happen

Congratulations to Jeff Kent on being elected to the Hall of Fame.  A very deserving honor for not just the best second baseman of his era, but the all-time leader in home runs at the position.  To hit the most home runs by anyone ever to play a position, any position, is certainly Hall of Fame-worthy.  Just ask Kent's Giants teammate.

That's the ironic thing about Kent's selection.  He was just the second-best player on those Giants teams.  He was the second-best player from those Giants teams on this ballot!  The best player on those teams, of course, was Barry Bonds, whose candidacy met the same fate with the Era Committee that it suffered year after year on the BBWAA ballot.  And, because he didn't get at least five votes, he won't be on the ballot the next time this group of players is considered in 2028.  If he doesn't get at least five votes again in 2031, when he's eligible to return to the ballot, that's it.  He won't be considered again.  Which, frankly, might be a good thing.

Don't get me wrong.  I think Barry Bonds is a Hall of Famer.  I always have, and my opinion's not gonna change.  He's the all-time and single-season home run leader, and he won the MVP every freaking year when he was in his prime!  Personally, I think Barry Bonds is on the shortlist of the greatest players of all-time.  The fact that it's unlikely he'll ever actually be a Hall of Famer has absolutely nothing to do with his playing ability and everyone knows that.  If his career was being judged just on that, he would've given a speech in Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility.

Same thing with Roger Clemens.  He wasn't just the greatest right-handed pitcher of his era.  He's one of the best of all-time.  Clemens has more Cy Young Awards than anybody and is third on the all-time strikeouts list.  If you watched baseball at all from the mid-80s to the mid-2000s, you knew you were watching a Hall of Famer every time he pitched.  Like Bonds, the reason he isn't has nothing to do with his playing ability.  Like Bonds, he won't be giving a speech in Cooperstown anytime soon.  Likely never.

We all know the reason why Bonds and Clemens are in this situation.  They're the poster children for the Steroid Era, a period in baseball history that many would like to forget and are now trying to erase.  Except, the problem is, you can't erase it.  The Steroid Era happened.  Pretending it didn't doesn't change that.  Hindsight might be 20-20, but people knew what was going on while it was happening and did nothing about it.  To suddenly act like the Steroid Era isn't part of the game's history is absurd.  Yet, that's exactly what they're trying to do.

It isn't just Bonds and Clemens, of course.  Alex Rodriguez.  Mark McGwire.  Sammy Sosa.  Manny Ramirez.  They'd all be slam dunk choices without their ties to steroids.  Even Gary Sheffield is in ballot purgatory because of his association.  Rafael Palmeiro fell off the BBWAA ballot after failing to even reach the required 5 percent threshold.

Those were some of the biggest names in baseball during the late 90s and early 2000s.  The fact that none of them will be in the Hall of Fame is, frankly, a glaring omission.  The late 90s and early 2000s happened.  There's plenty of video from the era to prove it.  And these players feature prominently in those clips.  You can't tell the story of baseball during that era without them.  Yet none of them will ever be Hall of Famers.

Induction into the Hall of Fame is the greatest honor a baseball player can receive.  And there is a character clause that voters are encouraged to consider when they cast their ballot.  They're the gatekeepers of history, and they take that role very seriously.  They feel that, because of their association with steroids, players like Bonds, Clemens & Co. violated the character clause and, as such, don't deserve the honor.  Which, while I don't agree with it, is a position I can at least respect.

As we saw throughout their decade on the BBWAA ballot, and again in the Eras Committee vote, Bonds, Clemens & Co. will simply never enough support to come anywhere close to the required 75 percent for election.  There are people who'll never vote for them no matter what.  There are those who will vote for them no matter what, even though they know it's essentially a burn vote.  There are also probably some who personally think they should be in, but strategically choose not to vote for them because they know they won't get in and want to support other candidates.

Their presence on the ballot, though, creates the same problem that we saw throughout their time on the BBWAA ballot.  The screening committee determined that Bonds and Clemens were worthy of at least consideration, even though they knew exactly how it would go.  Only eight names were placed on the ballot, and they were among those eight.  Because of that, two otherwise worthy candidates weren't on the ballot.  And, each member of the committee only had three votes.  So, any votes for Bonds and/or Clemens weren't votes for somebody else.  (Which would be a more relevant point had Carlos Delgado finished one vote shy of induction.)

Bonds, Clemens & Co. created ballot congestion on the main Hall of Fame ballot FOR A DECADE!  That ballot congestion is still being cleaned up.  Now that they've flipped over to the Eras Committee, they're only considered once every three years, so that alleviates the problem slightly.  As does the new rule that takes them out of consideration until 2031, when their names will appear on a Hall of Fame ballot for what will almost certainly be the final time.  Which, really, is a travesty.

I have no issue with the stipulation that they have to skip the next cycle if they don't get the requisite support.  After all, the BBWAA has, for years, had the rule that you need to get 5 percent of the vote to stay on the ballot, so putting in something similar for the Eras Committee does make sense.  (Although, I'd adjust it for the smaller sample size.  Requiring five votes seems like a lot, especially when there was only a total of 48 votes available to spread among the eight candidates.  Maybe you need three of the 16 votes to stay on?)  And, even though they change the committee members annually, it doesn't seem likely they'll suddenly have the support three years later. 

My problem is how, if they don't get five votes again the next time they appear on the ballot (whenever that is), they become permanently ineligible.  Particularly the "permanently ineligible" part.  Because that term should be reserved for those who aren't allowed to be on a Hall of Fame ballot for reasons other than not getting enough votes.  (And even Pete Rose isn't "permanently ineligible" anymore.  He'll almost certainly appear on the Eras Committee ballot in 2027.)

Although, maybe it's a good thing that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will likely no longer be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration after 2031.  Because we'll at least know for certain something we all already understand intellectually.  It won't end the debate about them, but it will at least bring some closure and some clarity.  Whether you (or I) think they should be or not, neither one is ever getting into the Hall of Fame.