Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are the marquee names who will appear on the Contemporary Era ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bonds, baseball’s all-time home run leader with 762 round-trippers, and Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, are the biggest names -- and most controversial -- on the ballot for the Hall’s Class of 2023.
The others are Albert Belle, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling, the Hall said in a news release on Monday.
Hall of Fame announces eight-player Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballothttps://t.co/k9jMTE8zZE pic.twitter.com/drFzbSaI8Z
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) November 7, 2022
The 16-member committee will vote on Dec. 4, and any candidate receiving 75% of the votes cast will earn election to Cooperstown. The results will be announced on Jan. 24, 2023, according to Bleacher Report.
Bonds, Clemens and Schilling were unable to gain election to the Hall in their 10th and final year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot this past year, according to The Athletic.
Sammy Sosa also made his 10th and final appearance on the baseball writers’ ballot, ESPN reported.
Bonds received 66% of the vote, Clemens 65.2%, Schilling 58.6% and Sosa had 18.5%. The quartet became immediately eligible for the Contemporary Era committee, which considers players who made their greatest contributions between 1980 to the present but failed to gain election to the Hall.
Bonds, Clemens and Palmeiro were hampered in voting from the BBWAA because of their alleged links to performance-enhancing drugs, The Athletic reported.
Clemens had 354 victories during his career and struck out 4,672 batters during his 24-year career.
Schilling drew as much as 71.1% support in 2021, but was unable to surpass the 75% threshold, falling 16 votes short of election, ESPN reported. After failing to gain election in 2021, Schilling wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame, asking to be removed from consideration in his final year of eligibility.
The Hall of Fame declined that request.
Schilling won 216 games during his career and went 11-2 in the postseason, but his controversial remarks about Muslims, transgenders and journalists led to criticism.
Palmeiro is one of only seven players with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, ESPN reported. He was suspended after testing positive for PEDs in 2005, his final season in the major leagues.
An election for candidates from the Contemporary Baseball Era ballot occurs every three years.
If anyone is elected by committee members, those players will be inducted in Cooperstown on July 23, 2023.
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