To those of us wanting to honor Fair Play in the Baseball Hall of Fame, we have lost. It is over.

Today is usually a day of great excitement for my friend, the baseball historian who follows the Hall of Fame quite well.

Today was not fun for my friend.

Why?

My friend brought me into the room to watch the MLB Network airing (kudos to MLB.com for providing the announcement feed freely) of the live announcement of the writers' decision to whom they would add to the two names the Veterans' Committee are going to have placed in Cooperstown, including (what would turn out to be ironic) Bud Selig.

What we found out horrified my anti-Steroid Era friend.

We would like to congratulate Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens for their induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame -- just not this year.

For a long time, however, we have been told that there is at least one roidie in the Hall already.

Last year, Mike Piazza (long-suspected of steroid use) might well have been the trial balloon.

This year, we now have our first KNOWN roidie heading to Cooperstown.

Ivan Rodriguez was one of the many names revealed in Jose Canseco's books regarding steroid abuse in the National Pastime.  Rodriguez becomes the first person (unless he wants to sue Canseco and wins -- or gets a retraction) basically known to be on the steroids and getting into Cooperstown anyway.

This, plus two other things my baseball historian friend found out after I posted this:

• A 2009 interview with Ivan Rodriguez, in which the interviewer asked whether Rodriguez was on the initial list of about 103-104 players testing positive in the initial 2003 testing.  His answer:  "Only God Knows."
• And then, when the teeth got into the plan and a positive test meant a long suspension, Ivan Rodriguez lost about 25-30 pounds the next off-season -- the same 25-30 pounds or so that became the telltale sign the likes of Barry Bonds were on the gas...

He has company, though:  Mr. "Thirty Pounds of Meat A Day", Jeff Bagwell, got the most votes of anybody, and will be inducted this summer into the Hall.  Bagwell probably ends up in the same column as Piazza, but, factually, is at least at the same level of suspicion.  It would take literally hours to eat 30 pounds of meat, not to mention how bad it would screw up your system.

(Also making the 75% amount and getting the call for the Hall, on his FINAL ATTEMPT:  Tim Raines.)

Other scary factoids from today's voting result reveals:

• Roger Clemens:  54.1%  Fourth among non-inductees.
• Barry Bonds:  53.8%  Fifth.
• Both Bonds and Clemens enjoyed increases of 9% in their percentage totals.
• Manny Ramirez, who tested positive TWICE:  23.8%.

It's kind of ironic, as I said:  Two of the three players going in with Selig on the writer's ballot were enabled to their success through drugs allowed, if not encouraged or trafficked, by Selig.

(By the way, only one member of the Veteran's Committee refused to induct Selig.)

So, when will the accursed day be?

Probably not until 2019's class.

2018 looks to be an abjectly stacked ballot.  Trevor Hoffman fell four votes short at 74%.  He should get in next year.  Vladimir Guerrero fell about 13-14 votes short at 71.7%, and should get in.

And then there's the first-timers:  Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, and Jim Thome among them.  Thome and Chipper are almost-certain locks, meaning that should be at least a class of four.

But what happened today makes it, now, inevitable...  Can you imagine a 2019 class headlined by Bonds, Clemens, and first-ballot Mariano Rivera???