Advertisement

Baseball Hall of Fame: Steroid users not welcome here

Rafael Palmeiro was named on just 8.8% of the 569 Hall of Fame ballots cast, despite being only the fourth player in Major League Baseball history with 500 or more home runs and 3,000 or more hits in his career.
(Chris Gardner / Associated Press)
Share via

Users of performance-enhancing drugs have not been forgiven by Hall-of-Fame-voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America. That much became clearer than ever on Wednesday.

Roger Clemens was named on only 37.6% of ballots; home run king Barry Bonds on just 36.2%. To be inducted, a player must be mentioned on 75% of the ballots.

But the most striking example of a player tainted by PED use was illustrated further down the list of 37 players who were potential inductees.

Advertisement

Nineteen players didn’t draw the required 5% to be included on the next ballot.

The next player up the line -- last among players who received enough support to be included in future votes -- is the fourth player in Major League Baseball history with 500 or more home runs and 3,000 or more hits in his career.

Rafael Palmeiro.

Palmeiro was named on just 8.8% of the 569 ballots cast.

Palmeiro certainly has the on-field credentials for induction. His career numbers: 569 home runs and 585 doubles among 3,020 hits, plus 1,835 runs batted in.

But Palmeiro was also implicated as a PED user in a Jose Canseco book and, more damaging, he was suspended by MLB after a positive drug test only a few months after he testified before Congress that he never used a PED.

Advertisement

Palmeiro has maintained that he never knowingly used a PED.

ALSO:

Suspicious minds could keep Mike Piazza out of the Hall

What if they gave a Hall of Fame ceremony and no one came?

Advertisement

Baseball Hall of Fame: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens shut out

Advertisement