Baseball’s all-time home run king and the most decorated pitcher likely will be shut out of the Hall of Fame in January. A survey by the AP shows Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, as well as slugger Sammy Sosa, don’t have enough votes to get into Cooperstown.
With steroid scandals still very much on the minds of longtime members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America as they cast their ballots, the trio failed to muster even 50 percent support among the 112 voters contacted by the AP — nearly one-fifth of those eligible to choose.
Candidates need 75 percent for election. Results will be released Jan. 9.
So Bonds, the only seven-time MVP, and Clemens, the only seven-time Cy Young Award winner, are likely to remain outside the Hall.
Among voters who expressed an opinion, Bonds received 45 percent support, Clemens 43 percent and Sosa 18 percent. To gain election, Bonds and Clemens would need more than 80 percent support among the voters not surveyed and Sosa would need to get more than 85 percent.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins took a minority view.
“The Hall of Fame’s ‘character’ clause should be stricken immediately, because it’s far too late to turn Cooperstown into a church,” he wrote in an email. “Players have been cheating like crazy forever. It’s an integral, if unsavory, part of the culture. I’ve always had the same criteria: which players were the best performers of their particular era — so absolutely, I’ll vote for Bonds, Clemens and Sosa.”