Could Barry Bonds end up in Cooperstown after all?
The Giants legend endured 10 years of being excluded from Baseball’s Hall of Fame on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) ballots, but will get a reprieve this fall. Bonds is one of eight players to be up for a vote from the newly-formed 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee. If Bonds gets at least 75 percent of the votes (12 votes) from the Committee later this year, he’ll be inducted into Cooperstown.
Other candidates on the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee ballot include Albert Belle, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling.
Bonds and Clemens have been the poster boys of baseball’s “Steroid Era” of the late 1990s and early 2000s, seemingly blackballed from the sport’s highest honor because of widespread accusations that they used performance-enhancing drugs in the late stages of their careers.
Many people still don’t recognize Bonds as the “True Home Run King” despite having 762 career dingers, seven more than the great Hank Aaron. Bonds is a seven-time MVP, 14-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glover, and is arguably the greatest left-handed hitter of all-time along with Ted Williams.
Clemens won the 1986 MVP, seven Cy Young Awards and was named to 11 All-Star teams. According to Baseball-Reference, Clemens (138.7 WAR is third-highest among pitchers in MLB history, as he also ranks third in career strikeouts (4,672) and ninth in career wins (354).
If anyone has a Hall of Fame resume, it’s Bonds and Clemens. We’ll have to see if the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee wants to punch their ticket to immortality.
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