SAN DIEGO – Sixteen people walked into a room Sunday to decide whether Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Fred McGriff, among others, should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They walked out in unanimous agreement that McGriff belongs and in overwhelming agreement that Bonds and Clemens do not. Welcome to Judgement Day, not just of a moment but of an era.
The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee of the Hall of Fame fixed the most egregious mistake of the past decade by the writers with the election of McGriff. Never able to crack 40% of the vote in 10 tries on the writers’ ballot, McGriff earned the vote of every man and woman in that room—a rarity in such committees that not even Bud Selig pulled off.
The clean sweep pointed out the folly of the majority of writers never getting behind a player who came to the plate more than 10,000 times and posted an .886 OPS. Only 14 other players to reach a Hall of Fame ballot—and not connected to PEDs—ever hit so well for so long and every one of them were inner-circle Hall of Famers.
