Hall of Fame committee rebukes Curt Schilling, fittingly, but also Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens

With its vote to reject Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling, the Hall of Fame’s contemporary era committee issued a resounding rebuke for unrepentant juicers and religious bigots.

The results of a 16-member panel, comprised of Hall members, executives, and writers, voted Sunday to consider the candidacy of eight finalists. Each voter could select as many as three players. Players needed at least 12 votes out of 16, or 75%. Bonds and Clemens got fewer than four votes. Schilling got seven.

Which means that committee voters consider testosterone more damning than treason and transphobia.

Fred McGriff, a PED-free iron man power hitter, was elected unanimously. McGriff’s numbers remained steady during the steroid era, while his peers’ numbers skyrocketed. He never received more than 39.8% of the baseball writers’ vote, and that was in 2019, his 10th and final year of eligibility on their ballot.

The committee, which included Hall of Fame players Frank Thomas, Ryne Sandberg, Alan Trammell, Greg Maddux, Jack Morris, and Lee Smith, righted that wrong. Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, a sentimental pick but wholly unworthy of the Hall, got eight votes.

» READ MORE: Fred McGriff elected into Baseball Hall of Fame; Curt Schilling falls short

At least the committee didn’t come close to electing Schilling, like the writers did.

In 2020, his ninth year of eligibility on the writers’ ballot, Schilling got 71.1% of the vote, despite his 2016 tweet that supported lynching the very journalists tasked to consider him.

In 2021 that number fell to 58.6%, apparently due to two factors. First, Schilling was miffed after the 2020 vote, and asked to be removed form the writers’ ballot. He said he’d rather be considered by the committee.

Oops.

Perhaps more significantly, though, Schilling fired off a tweet supporting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building intended to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Schilling is a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, who encouraged the mob. The insurrection left five dead, injured 140 law enforcement officers, led to more than 900 people being charged with crimes, and resulted in more than 400 guilty pleas, as well as several other convictions and ongoing trials. The tweet read:

“You cowards sat on your hands, did nothing while liberal trash looted rioted and burned for air Jordan’s and big screens. sit back [shut up] and watch folks start a confrontation for [stuff] that matters like rights, democracy and the end of [government] corruption. #itshappening.

Schilling also was suspended as an analyst at ESPN in 2015 after a tweet that compared Muslims to Nazis.

He then was fired in 2016 when he reposted on Facebook a transphobic meme with his own transphobic commentary. No other major media outlet has touched him since.

As solid a candidate as Schilling is, excluding decorated champions like Bonds and Clemens seems to slam the door on players with PED connections. This is terrible news for Alex Rodriguez, who is in his second year of eligibility and got 34.3% of the Hall of Fame vote last year, and Manny Ramirez, who is in his seventh year of eligibility and got 28.9% last year.

For 15 years, Bonds and Clemens have served as the convenient, unpopular scapegoats for the steroid epidemic of the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s assumed that several inducted Hall of Fame players might have used steroids, but none carries the cachet of Bonds or Clemens.

» READ MORE: From Schilling and politics to Ortiz and PEDs: Baseball writers can’t win as Hall of Fame voters | David Murphy (from January)

Bonds received 66.0% of the 2021 vote, while Clemens got 65.2%.

Full disclosure: I voted for both. A-Rod and Manny, too. In fact, they were my top four candidates. I did not vote for Schilling last year.

Why?

I covered baseball all through the Steroid Era, and I believe its use was rampant and undetected because the owners and media turned a blind eye, and therefore consider that the advantages Bonds and Clemens enjoyed were moderated by their peers’ participation. Also, both had Hall of Fame resumés independent of the periods in which they are considered to have used PEDs.

I didn’t vote for Schilling because he’s ... well, you read his list of sins above.

By contrast, blacklisting players for PED use in a PED era when owners and the media were only too happy to make PED money off PED players seems hypocritical.

The criteria for voting reads thus:

The committee shall consider all candidates and voting shall be based upon the individual’s record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the game.

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A transphobic religious bigot who celebrates treason carries with him too many character flaws to warrant election. Come to think of it, it’s not astonishing that Schilling only got 43.75% of the vote this year. It’s astonishing that seven of 16 voters overlooked the character clause.

At any rate, the contemporary era committee reconvenes in three years, but Schilling is probably done. Bonds and Clemens, too.

Thank goodness.