SF Giants legend Barry Bonds falls short of Hall of Fame induction yet again
Former SF Giants outfielder Barry Bonds was not inducted to the Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Era Committee on Sunday. Bonds was one of several who did not make the cut this round of voting. He received less than four votes out of a possible 16, as first reported by the New York Post's Jon Heyman.
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To kick off the Winter Meetings, members of the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee voted on former players whose contributions came in the era after 1980. It was an eight-player ballot that included two other players that missed their final BBWAA chance last year, pitchers Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling. They also voted on Albert Belle, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, and Rafael Palmeiro. Fred McGriff was the sole player elected.
Just like with the regular ballot, these players needed to get 75 percent of the vote to gain induction into the Hall. However, for the full BBWAA membership, that means 293 votes - Bonds was 33 short. For the 16-member committee, only twelve of them had to consider Bonds Hall-worthy. Each voter only got three votes, making it very difficult for any player to get chosen.
Bonds won seven MVP awards and holds the all-time MLB home run record. He’s also the all-time walks champion. Of course, his accomplishments on the field were likely not weighed in this vote. It was expected that it had more to do with the performance-enhancing drug era. It was reported that several of the players in the voting committee were vocally anti-PED. Again, as for the last decade, this committee decided to uphold their definition of clean baseball, though David Ortiz made it last year despite failing a PED test in 2003.
While not reported with the same zeal as his connection to the PED era, Bonds' history of domestic abuse probably should have been a bigger reason for his rejection. His ex-wife and ex-girlfriend both reported that Bonds abused them physically and emotionally. This hasn't historically kept people from the Hall of Fame in the past, from Ty Cobb to Joe DiMaggio to Bobby Cox.
Despite these strikes, it is widely believed that it is impossible to tell the story of baseball without so much as a mention of Barry Bonds. While the performance-enhancing drug era seems to be a time MLB is keen to leave in the past, to do so would be hypocritical, as it is well-understood that it was one of the most popular and lucrative periods in the sport's history. He will now have to wait until 2026 to be up for vote again.
