Jeff Kent is about to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are once again snubbed by voters.
The five-time All-Star second baseman was enshrined via a committee vote on Sunday, while Bonds and Clemens lost again after losing ten BBWAA elections and their first committee vote. Candidates need 12 votes from this year’s 16-member Contemporary Era Committee.
The newest Hall of Fame inductees will be officially inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, along with players who passed the BBWAA ballot this winter. Carlos Beltran is the only player to exceed the 75% requirement among the handful of votes released so far.
There are eight players on the ballot this year: Bonds, Clemens, Kent, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
The voting body includes seven Hall of Fame players (Fergie Jenkins, Jim Carter, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount), two owners (Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers and Art Moreno of the Los Angeles Angels), four former general managers (Doug Melvin, Kim Wu, Tony Regins and Terry Ryan) and three members of the media (Steve Hedter, Tyler Kepner and Jason Stark).
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are two of the most controversial Hall of Fame candidates ever
Bonds and Clemens are both among the most accomplished players in baseball history and would be automatic first-round draft picks under normal circumstances, but it’s clear to every sports fan that their circumstances are anything but normal. Bonds and Clemens’ candidacies have been hanging over the Hall of Fame since their final seasons in 2007 due to doping allegations.
Bonds admitted to unknowingly using the anabolic steroid allogestrine, and Clemens has always denied using any steroids, but there was so much evidence that both men knowingly took PEDs that their claims of innocence under oath in Congress led to a perjury trial. Clemens was acquitted in his case, while Bonds was found guilty but overturned on appeal.
As the candidacy drags on, major allegations in the pair’s personal lives also become an issue. Bonds’ ex-wife accused him of physical abuse multiple times during their marriage, and a former mistress also accused him of verbal abuse and death threats.
In 2008, the New York Daily News reported that Clemens had been having an affair with country singer Mindy McCready since she was 15 years old. McCready confirmed she had been in a relationship but denied it began when she was 15, while Clemens apologized for unspecified matters "Mistakes in my personal life" But he denied claims he had an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old girl. McCready committed suicide in 2013.
Despite their different lists of scandals, Bonds and Clemens have always followed similar paths to Hall of Fame voting. They first appeared on the BBWAA ballot in 2013, with Bonds receiving 36.2% of the vote and Clemens receiving 37.6%.
Over the next nine years, they never separated by more than 2%. They are a simple yes for any voters who believe the respective charges should not override Hall’s character clause. For voters who can’t shake the scandal, it’s easy to say no. The Hall certainly didn’t want them on board because it chose to reduce the number of years a player would be on the BBWAA ballot from 15 to 10 so that their candidacy wouldn’t have to be processed over such a long period of time.
The BBWAA’s candidacy ends in 2022, with Bonds leading at 66% and Clemens at 65.2%, dozens of votes shy of the 75% needed to enter. That moved their candidacy to the committee process, where they received less than four votes out of 16.
This year’s committee concluded its vote in a similar manner.
