For the ninth time in history and the first in 2013, the American Baseball Writers Association (BBWAA) has not elected a new member to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, both bodies reported Tuesday.
Pitcher Curt Schilling was the closest to being elected by obtaining 71.1% of the ballots cast, being only 16 votes short to enter the immortals of the sport. Schilling was followed by all-time leader Barry Bonds (61.8%) and 354-game winner Roger Clemens (61.6).
Schilling, Bonds, Clemens and outfielder Sammy Sosa failed to reach 75% of the vote for the ninth consecutive year, which means they will return to voting in 2020 for the 10th and final chance.
Upset by the result, Schilling said he did not want to see his name on the ballot next year to leave Coopertown in the hands of the Veterans Committee.
“I will not participate in the last year of voting. I ask to be removed from the ballot. I will present myself to the committee of veterans and men whose opinions really matter,” he wrote in a letter on Facebook.
Support for Bonds and Clemens has largely stalled in recent seasons, as writers’ positions on Steroid-era players have largely prevailed at a level that leaves them just below the threshold. Last season, Clemens was nominated with 61% of the vote, while Bonds got 60.7.
Schilling, on the other hand, had seen its share of the vote rise from 45% in 2017 to 70% last year. Historically, most players who reach the 70% level eventually get enough support to land in Cooperstown. However, the reaction against Schillings’ public and social presence seems to limit his support.
Among Schilling’s most controversial moments is a 2016 tweet in which he seemed to support the lynching of journalists, which was later removed. More recently, Schilling has expressed support for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, even though the writers’ ballots were cast before that date.
Clemens’ obligations and field numbers are undeniable, as both players are among the most productive players in the history of baseball, although their achievements have been hampered by allegations of substance use that have surrounded them. players. Schilling’s merit-based case is not so strong, but the recent trajectory of his share of the vote has suggested that it was about to be exaggerated. The fact that the three prominences remain on the outside on the inside suggests that the character clause that appears in the criteria that Hall offers to writers extends more than ever.
The exclusion of the BBWAA from the vote is only part of the reason why the Hall will not receive new members this year. Hall veterans’ committees generally meet just before the winter meetings each year to consider candidates whose eligibility for ballots has expired. The 2020 winter meetings were held mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the veterans’ committees did not meet and will not consider candidates until the December 2021 meetings in December.
Therefore, Tuesday’s announcement means that no new players have won entry to Cooperstown from the Kennedy administration. Between 1958 and 1960, only Zack Wheat (1959) was selected.
Since the Hall of Fame was established in 1936 (the first ceremony took place three years later), writers have not chosen any new immortals in the trials of 1945, 1946, 1950, 1958, 1960, 1971, 1996 and 2013, being this it is, curiously, the last time the players were excluded by journalists, where Bonds, Clemens, Schilling and Sosa started voting.
The fact that the BBWAA did not favor any of the candidates does not mean that the 2021 exaltation ceremony is deserted.
Last year’s class of Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons and the late Marvin Miller, the first executive director of the Major League Baseball Association, will be honored at the Clark Sports Complex in Cooperstown on Sunday, July 25 (MLBPA).
In addition, as part of the festivities, the winning narrators of the 2020 Ford C. Frick Prize (Ken Harrelson) and 2021 (Al Michaels) and the JG Taylor Spink Prize-winning writers 2020 (the late Nick Cafardo) and 2021 (Dick Kaegel).
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, last year’s Hall of Fame ceremony was canceled, something that had not happened for six decades. Cooperstown did not hold the swearing-in ceremony in 1950, 1958 and 1960, after the vote did not lead to new elections, while no elections were held in 1940, 1941 and 1943. In 1942, Rogers Hornsby was elected, but no ceremony was held on U.S. travel restrictions related to World War II.