They might as well not even technically hold one, except for the families of three deceased Veterans' Committee inductees.
No living person, for the first time since 1966 (the last time the writers' ballot went empty, before today, was 1996 -- but Earl Weaver was inducted by the Veterans' Committee that year), was elected by either the writers' or Veterans' Committee ballots.
The Hall of Fame elected no one today. The writers repudiated the careers of known steroid cheats Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (both of whom got under 40% of the vote, well short of the 75% needed for induction), and probably stopped Craig Biggio (#1 vote getter in his first year of eligibility -- 68.2%) from getting in on the first ballot.
Some thoughts:
1) None of the Steroid Era Cheats are getting in. This pretty much should slam the door on all of them. This means up to and including Alex Roidriguez.
2) It's beginning to look VERY VERY LEAN in the years to come, as the Steroid Era is going to have to flush through the process. It is quite possible that, on two hands, we could probably name all of the living players to get into the Hall in the next 10 or so years. Biggio probably is getting in eventually. Maddux and Glavine, Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro, and maybe Jack Morris or Frank Thomas or the like. That's about it. There are going to be a lot of null induction classes going forward.
3) Baseball has to step in, and not how the enablers at ESPN would like. The entire Steroid Era has to be wiped from the books as much as humanly possible. The Commissioner needs to ban Barry Bonds and all known steroid cheats from the game and Hall of Fame, wipe out their records and statistics, and nullify every Championship from 1995 to about 2007 or so, depending upon when it can be accepted that steroids finally did not permeate the game to the point of absolute contamination.
Baseball was contaminated beyond all repair for the better part of at least a dozen years, and that depends on how many years BEFORE the 1994 strike end up that contaminated. You now have, at best, a wounded game with a "dead-bat" era (is it any conceivable wonder that, in the three years where it is believed (and only believed) that steroids have been cleaned, we have had 16 no-hitters and, last year alone, for the first time, three perfect games.).
(There have, in fact, been only 23 perfect games in the history of baseball in the US at the top level. FIVE have occurred in the last three years, and the first two times in the history of the game, in 2010 and 2012, that multiple perfect games have been thrown in the same year.)
But you have a wounded game with a Balkanized fanbase (ever watch the World Series numbers, people?) where one has to question everything coming out of the Office of the Commissioner.
Is it any wonder that the only real relevance Baseball has is the carrying of tradition and the fact that the season does a very nice job of bridging one football season to the next?
4) Two major questions, basically, remain.
a) How do you answer questions like the one posed in today's ESPN Apologist Chat on the situation from a commenter named "Tim":
"The thing i don't understand is, the games
counted. The stats count. Other memorabilia from these players sits in
the Hall. How can I go to the museum one day and tell my kid that these
players aren't part of it?"
And that's a very good question. It deserves the fullest of answers.
I) The games don't count anymore. All of the championships and standings of the Steroid Era are nullified. The more which comes out about the Steroid Era, between "speed" and steroids, the more that Canseco's claim of 4/5 of all the players being dirty actually sounds low.
II) If anyone's stats count from the Steroid Era, then they cannot have any suspicion of use. Period. This is why there are about six living players I see getting in (unless I forgot somebody, and I'm sure I will have) in the next 10-12 years or so. USA Today has said today is the eighth time in the history of the ballot that no player got in. In the next 12 years, I see that number doubling.
But the fact is that so few players are probably clean (Biggio is believed to be, then you get the two Atlanta pitchers, Thomas, etc.) that the entire era is forever contaminated. Even the clean players will, effectively, have asterisks next to their plaques.
III) Remove the memorabilia. The games never, functionally, took place. We must leave a ~15 year gap in the history of the game for deterrence of future generations to even think of contaminating the game to this level (or, probably, given enhancements, far worse, if that can be conceived!!).
IV) There must, once and for all, be a criminal investigation against Bud Selig. At minimum for obstruction of justice, if not far more. Even if he is never jailed due to his age, he must be repudiated as the Commissioner of a flawed sport.
This is the result of 15 years of rigged games. Perhaps not rigged directly for result with respect to a scripted end, but rigged nonetheless (and almost certainly with the full blessing of MLB) to "bring the game back" after the 1994 strike.
Selig must be held culpable to these acts.
b) The second question which must be answered is one that a lot of people have skirted around:
Has there been a cheat already put into the Hall, and, if so, what is to be done?
I think part of the justification that these ESPN Bonds-heads are saying as to put Bonds in the Hall is that, as a couple stated in the chat, there is a steroid cheat already in the Hall -- we just don't know who it is yet.
I, frankly, think, that might be the straw which breaks the camel's back, and the Hall puts in policies to remove players. That could become a very interesting discussion vis-a-vis even some very old inductees.
As it is, I think Biggio waits two years: Next year is Maddux, Glavine, and Frank Thomas. The two pitchers almost certainly get in first-ballot, Thomas might have to wait, because I would not be certain that there won't be voters who won't try to nullify Thomas' achievements through anabolic steroids -- though the only stuff he probably took was anabolic cheeseburgers... (What am I saying? One historian friend of mine said it best: "He's from Chicago. Deep-dish pizzas!!").
The problem is, since no person even got 70% of the vote, you could easily see Biggio snowed under by the two pitchers and possibly Frank Thomas next year, and Biggio might not get in at all -- or have to wait the better part of a decade to do it.
But there is one final scary thing which must be admitted.
Anyone who gets into the Hall who substantively played in the Steroid Era (~1995-~2009, give or take) is going to have an asterisk on their plaque, whether that asterisk is visible, and whether or not the player is actually clean.
This is unavoidable.
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