Among those waiting for the Hall of Fame call today that might not come: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa (AP illustration)
By Mike Harrington
Bonds? Clemens? Piazza? Sosa?
Bagwell or Biggio?
What about Morris or Raines?
The results of the most muddled and controversial Hall of Fame ballot ever come out today. MLB Network will run a three-hour show from noon-3 p.m. with the balloting announced at 2. You'll be able to check full ballots and totals on BBWAA.com, the official site of the Baseball Writers Association of America (disclosure: I am a member but my Hall voting privileges do not begin until 2016).
You have to get 75 percent of the vote to get in and by many accounts, no one will. The BBWAA could be pitching its first shutout since 1996 and there might be no live inductee for the first time since 1960 (the three choices of the Pre-Integration Era Committe are all deceased).
The Baseball Think Factory has been collecting ballots on what it calls its Hall of Fame Gizmo, a post that proved virtually foolproof last year when Barry Larkin was the only player elected.
(Ignore the date being listed on the post as Dec. 27. That's the first day it went up but the numbers are being updated regularly.)
The news from the gizmo is not good for anyone on the ballot. As of 7:30 this morning, with 173 ballots tallied, only Biggio (71.1 percent) has even hit 70. Bonds was at 44.5 and Clemens at 43.4. And having more than 30 percent of the vote to make conclusions on is far more than what television networks use for presidential elections.
In a column Sunday, New York Times writer Tyler Kepner came up with the same conclusion. When we did a straw vote here last month? Same conclusion. No one got 75 percent.
There's going to be plenty of railing about the process in the Steroid Era, especially if a shutout is pitched today. In my column last month, I listed some of my thoughts. You can vote for up to 10 players but maybe that limit should go to 15. The ballot is only going to get more crowded in the next 3-5 years.
If I had a ballot, who would I be voting for? Bonds, Clemens, Biggio, Piazza, Schilling, Morris, Bagwell, Raines, Trammell.
I still think most of them will get their day. But it likely won't be today.
