Jeff Kent is headed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were once again left in the cold by voters.
The five-time All-Star second baseman was granted enshrinement on Sunday by committee vote, while Bonds and Clemens again fell short after 10 failed BBWAA elections and and their first failed committee vote. Candidates needed 12 votes from this year’s 16-member Contemporary Era Committee.
The newest Hall of Fame members will be formally inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, alongside whichever players make it through this winter’s BBWAA voting. Carlos Beltran is the only player above the needed 75% among the few votes that have so far been revealed.
This year had eight players up for a vote: Bonds, Clemens, Kent, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
The voting body consisted of seven Hall of Fame players (Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount, two owners (Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers and Arte Moreno of the Los Angeles Angels), four former general managers (Doug Melvin, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan) and three media members (Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark).
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are the 2 most controversial Hall of Fame candidates ever
Both Bonds and Clemens are among the most accomplished players in the history of baseball and would be automatic first-ballot additions under normal circumstances, but every sports fan is well aware their circumstances aren’t normal. Due to allegations of performance-enhancing drug use, the candidacy of Bonds and Clemens has hung over the Hall of Fame since their final seasons in 2007.
Bonds has admitted to unknowingly using the anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone while Clemens has persistently denied any steroid use, but significant evidence exists that both men knowingly took PEDs, so much so that their claims of innocence under oath before Congress led to perjury trials. Clemens was acquitted in his case, while Bonds was found guilty but had his conviction overturned on appeal.
Significant allegations in both men’s personal lives also became an issue as their candidacies dragged on. Bonds’ ex-wife accused him of physical abuse on several occasions 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 engaged in an affair with country singer Mindy McCready since she was 15 years old. McCready confirmed she had a relationship while denying it began when she was 15, while Clemens apologized for unspecified “mistakes in my personal life” but denied the claim he had an improper relationship with a 15-year-old girl. McCready committed suicide in 2013.
Despite some differences in their respective list of scandals, Bonds and Clemens always walked a similar path in the Hall of Fame voting. They first entered the BBWAA ballot in 2013, with Bonds receiving 36.2% of the vote and Clemens getting 37.6%.
Over the next nine years, they never finished more than 2% away from each other. They were an easy yes for any voter who felt their respective allegations shouldn’t override the Hall’s character clause. They were an easy no for voters who couldn’t get past the scandals. The Hall certainly didn’t want them to make it in, as it opted to cut the amount of years a player can stay on the BBWAA ballot from 15 years to 10, just so it wouldn’t have to deal with their candidacies for so long.
That BBWAA candidacy ran out in 2022, with Bonds topping out at 66% and Clemens at 65.2%, dozens of votes short of the 75% needed to get in. That sent their candidacies to the committee process, where they got fewer than four votes out of 16.
This year’s committee wound up voting similarly.
