The Baseball Hall of Fame voting isn’t what it used to be. No torches, no pitchforks, no villagers storming the gates protesting the trampled rights of cheaters.
No, the victims — Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens — have disappeared from the Hall of Fame ballot after 10 years of supporters battling for the steroid cheaters and their disgraced legacies, dropping off after the 2022 vote.
They have moved on now to the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, where players after 1980 will be reconsidered for induction by those already enshrined in Cooperstown, baseball executives and writers. Bonds and Clemens have a better chance of winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Enthusiasm has waned for players who used performance-enhancing substances for their self-interests — in Bonds’ case, his jealousy of the attention Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, both also turned away from the Hall, garnered during their 1998 fraudulent home run contest.
To repeat myself in my annual Hall of Fame ballot column: Bonds admitted to using steroids in grand jury testimony and Clemens was named as a steroid user in the federal Mitchell Report.
There is no groundswell of support for Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, both of whom would have been first-ballot Hall of Famers if not for their pathetic and indefensible histories of multiple failed drug tests, confessions, and suspensions. Rodriguez drew just 34.8% of the vote on this year’s ballot, down slightly from last year. Ramirez garnered 32.5%, also down slightly from last year.
You need 75% of the vote from the qualified members of the Baseball Writers Association of America to get into Cooperstown.
Gary Sheffield fell short in his final year on the ballot with 63.9% of the vote. Gary, you should have never accepted that FedEx package from BALCO labs.
So now it’s back to the basics — telling writers what idiots they were for voting for this candidate or passing over another candidate.
The writers voted for Adrian Beltre (95.1%), Todd Helton (79.7%) and Joe Mauer (76.1%). I voted for all three, plus reliever Billy Wagner and second baseman Chase Utley.
Here were the candidates on this year’s ballot.
New players: José Bautista, Beltré, Bartolo Colon, Adrián González, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, Mauer, Brandon Phillips, José Reyes, James Shields, Utley and David Wright.
Players who returned to the ballot: Helton, 6th year; Wagner, 9th year, Andruw Jones, 7th year; Sheffield, 10th year; Carlos Beltrán, 2nd year; Rodríguez, 3rd year; Ramírez, 8th year; Omar Vizquel, 7th year; Andy Pettitte, 6th year; Bobby Abreu, 5th year; Jimmy Rollins, 3rd year; Mark Buehrle, 4th year; Francisco Rodríguez, 2nd year and Torii Hunter, 4th year.
Here’s my case for my votes.
Wagner: I’ve been voting for the reliever for several years now. The legacy of relief pitchers, like designated hitters, has been difficult to break down. There are eight in Cooperstown. He pitched 16 seasons with the Astros, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox and Braves, with 422 career saves, second highest among left-handed relievers and sixth overall. He had 12 seasons with 20-plus saves, nine seasons with 30 or more and two with 40 or more (2003, 2006). His 2.31 career ERA is the lowest among retired left-handed relievers with at least 500 innings pitched. Wagner was a seven-time All-Star and won the 1999 National League Rolaids Relief Award. He nearly got in with 73.8 percent of the vote. Next year will be Wagner’s last shot on the ballot.
Beltre: Like Adam Peters as the Commanders’ general manager, putting Beltre into the Hall of Fame was a no-brainer. He was among the greatest third basemen of his time, a five-time Gold Glove winner. He passed the still-relevant 3,000-hit mark, with 3,166 hits in 21 seasons with the Dodgers, Mariners, Red Sox and Rangers. He hit 477 career home runs and led all of baseball in 2004 with 48 home runs. He won the Silver Slugger Award for third basemen four times. Remarkably, he was only an All-Star four times.
Mauer: A catcher with three batting titles, he led the American League in hitting in 2006, 2008 and 2009. I should just stop there. His best season was 2009, when Mauer batted .365 with a league-leading 1.031 OPS, the only catcher to lead either league in OPS. That was his MVP season. In 15 seasons, from 2004 to 2018, all with the Twins, Mauer had a career batting average of .306. He is the only catcher in history with at least 2,000 hits, a .300 batting average and a .380 on-base percentage Mauer was a six-time All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger winner and a three-time Gold Glove winner, spending most of his career behind the plate.
Utley: His place in Cooperstown is a legitimate debate, and, based on his 28.8% vote in his first year eligible, a lot of people need to be convinced. I fell on the side of a Hall of Fame career for a second baseman. In 16 seasons from 2003 to 2018 with the Phillies and the Dodgers, Utley hit 259 home runs, scored 1,103 runs (leading the National League in runs scored in 1996) and drove in 1,025 RBI, with a .275 career batting average and 1,885 hits. He drove in 100-plus runs four times and hit 20-plus home runs five times. Utley was a six-time All-Star and a four-time Silver Slugger winner for second baseman. I saw enough of Utley to believe he was a Hall of Famer.
Helton: It’s the first time I’ve voted for him. I was reluctant to do so in the past because of the concerns about the Coors Field offensive advantage. But I’ve come around to believe that Helton was a Hall of Famer at home and on the road and that different ballparks offer different advantages and disadvantages. Players who can get 5% of the vote can be on the ballot for 10 years. Voters can change their minds during those 10 years. In 17 seasons from 1997 to 2013 — all with the Rockies — Helton batted .316 with 369 home runs, 1,401 runs scored, 1,406 RBI and 2,519 hits (leading the league with 216 hits in 2000). He was a five-time All-Star, a four-time Silver Slugger winner and won three Gold Gloves at first base.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s Hall of Fame ballot — Ichiro Suzuki. It will be an honor to vote for him.
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• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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