Baseball Writers Elect None To Hall Of Fame
NEW YORK (CBSMiami) – For only the eighth time in the history of the Baseball Hall of Fame, baseball writers failed to elect anyone into the Hall of Fame. The selection process was made more difficult this year as players from the steroid-era were on the ballot for the first time.
The Baseball Writers Association of America gave the highest percentage of votes to former Houston Astros second baseman Craig Biggio who captured 68 percent of the ballots. He was followed by former pitcher Jack Morris and former Houston Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell who received 59.6 percent.
Seventy-five percent of voters is needed to get into the Hall of Fame.
But the real drama came as the percentage of vote was revealed for some of the biggest names of the steroids-era of baseball including Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Both players were in their first years of eligibility for the Hall of Fame.
Clemens received just 37.6 percent support from the BBWAA while Bonds received just 36.2 percent support. Commentator Bob Costas called the vote for Bonds a real "kick in the ***" to Bonds because at one point he would have received 100 percent support before the steroid scandal broke.
As for two other steroid-era players, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, neither received more than 20 percent support from the writers. Baseball commentator Bob Costas said neither Sosa nor McGwire will ever get into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Costas said he expects the vote totals for both Bonds and Clemens to go up next year, but the question will be how much?
