Time For The 2013 MLB Hall Of Fame Ballot

Today the 2013 MLB Hall of Fame ballot was announced, there are 37 total players on the ballot this year and to get inducted they need 75% (or more) of the 600+ members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to vote for them.

 

This year Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza and Curt Schilling are all on the ballot for the first time. The big question that many of the writers will need to answer is how does the cloud of steroid usage affect their votes? Bonds, Clemens and Sosa are poster boys for the “Steroid Age” along with Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmerio.

 

McGwire and Palmeiro have both been on previous ballots, McGwire 6 years and Palmeiro 2 years, and neither has come close to the required 75% needed to get inducted. While both players put up some big numbers and broke some records they do not compare with Bonds’ MLB record 762 homeruns or Clemens MLB record 7 Cy Young Awards so the writers have a quandary here, do they ignore the steroid accusation and vote them in on their records or do they ignore the records and not vote for them based on the steroids?