NEW YORK — Just when we thought we’d said goodbye to Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens for a while thanks to the Baseball Writers Association last January, they’re coming around again as two of the eight candidates on the Contemporary Era Hall of Fame ballot which will be voted on Sunday as the kickoff to the winter meetings in San Diego.
When Bonds, Clemens and Curt Schilling all fell off the writers’ ballot after failing to achieve the necessary 75% for election in their 10th and final year of eligibility, they automatically were consigned to the Hall of Fame’s veterans committee “court of second resort” — and as fate would have it, their Contemporary Era’s cycle just happened to be this year.
There had been discussion among the Hall’s board of directors that players falling off the writers’ ballot should have to wait through at least one cycle (or three years) to be eligible again. That may eventually be the case but for this year the Hall was apparently sensitive to the appearance of prejudice against steroid cheats if they didn’t allow Bonds and Clemens to go right onto the Contemporary Era ballot.
