ORLANDO, Florida — Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens face only one more chance to be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame under the current rules, with the Hall president believing they were rejected because contemporary era committee members evaluate the Steroid Era the same way baseball writers do.
Bonds and Clemens each received less than five votes Sunday from the committee that selected Jeff Kent.
“I’m not surprised because I think there’s overlap and obviously discussions among authors and we have representation of authors on that committee,” Hall President Jane Forbes Clark said Monday after a press conference with Kent at the winter meetings.
Under a change announced by the Hall last March, candidates who receive fewer than five votes from the 16-person panel are not eligible for that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle. A candidate who is removed, later reappears on the ballot and again receives less than five votes will be barred from participating in future ballots.
This means that if Bonds and Clemens appear again on the contemporary era ballot in 2031 and fail to receive five votes, they will be barred from appearing in future unless the rules are changed.
“The good thing about this is it will open up spots on the ballot so more people can be reviewed,” Clark said. “They can certainly come back in six years, in ’31, but between now and then some other guys will get the chance because I think that’s really important.”
Under the Hall’s committee format, players from the 1980s contemporary era alternate with managers, officials and umpires from the classic era and contemporary era over three years.
A seven-time NL MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds set the career home run record with 762 and the season record with 73 in 2001. A seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens went 354–184 with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts, third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Randy Johnson (4,875).
Bonds has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens says he never used PEDs.
Bonds and Clemens squared off in their 10th and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot in 2022, when Bonds received 260 of the 394 votes (66%) and Clemens received 257 (65.2%).
In their first appearance in the Contemporary Era Committee voting, Bond and Clemens each received less than four votes in December 2022 as Fred McGriff was elected.
