Bonds, Clemens rejected; no one elected to BB Hall

The Associated Press

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.