Less than a year after his eligibility on the traditional Baseball Hall of Fame ballot expired, Barry Bonds will get another shot at Cooperstown.
Bonds is one of eight players on the Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot alongside Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Albert Belle, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling.
The former Giants great and MLB all-time home run leader will be considered for the Hall by a different group this time around, too. On the traditional player ballot, the Baseball Writers Association of America votes. This time around, a 16-person panel appointed by the Hall of Fame’s board will cast the votes, and the results will be announced Dec. 4 on MLB Network as the Winter Meetings kick off.
Players must receive 75 percent of the vote, like on the BBWAA ballot, and panelists can only vote for three of the eight players.
In January, Bonds fell short in his 10th and final year of eligibility for the BBWAA ballot, receiving 66 percent of the vote, nine points shy of the 75 percent needed.
Clemens and Palmeiro, like Bonds, have had their candidacies shrouded by ties to performance-enhancing drugs, an issue that some BBWAA voters focused on in voting against the trio. Schilling’s fringe political commentary since retiring has harmed his own case.
David Ortiz was the only player elected in 2022, perhaps showing that the iciness towards players with PED ties had decreased, but it wasn’t in time for Bonds to reach enshrinement.
Any players elected via the Contemporary Era Players ballot will be enshrined July 23, 2023 alongside those voted in on the BBWAA ballot, which will be announced Jan. 24.
The second-chance window for Bonds, Clemens and others was cracked open last April when baseball’s Hall of Fame restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years.
The Hall revamped the panels into the Contemporary Baseball Era from 1980 on and Classic Baseball Era for before 1980. The Contemporary Baseball Era will hold a separate ballot for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.
Each committee meets every three years, starting with Contemporary Baseball/Players this December. Next up is the Contemporary Baseball/Managers-Umpires-Executives in December 2023, and Classic Baseball in December 2024.
In 2010 the Hall established three committees: Pre-Integration (1871-1946), Golden (1947-72) and Expansion (starting in 1973). That was changed in 2016 to four committees: Golden Days (1950-69), Modern Baseball (1970-87), Today’s Game (1988-2016) and Early Baseball (1871-1949).
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Source: www.mercurynews.com