For the first time since 1996, no one has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Craig Biggio was 39 votes short of selection. He “killer Bs” longtime teammate Jeff Bagwell obviously fell well short too. So did Tim Raines, Mike Piazza and Don Mattingly. Ok, it was a weak class for the first ballot.
Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire didn’t get in because the hall hasn’t opened a steroids only wing yet. But Fred McGriff and Edgar Martinez are deserving in my opinion. Especially McGrifff who was clean in an era when most people weren’t. In ’96, the top three vote getters were Phil Niekro (68.3), Tony Perez (65.7) and Don Sutton (63.8). All were subsequently elected; Niekro in 1997, Sutton in 1998 and Perez in 2000. The other BBWAA elections without a winner were in 1945, 1946, 1950, 1958, 1960 and 1971.
Biggio had 68.2% and Jack Morris had 67.7%. Bagwell had 59. So things look good in future years for all three.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Chicago Tribune.com, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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