Two of the greatest players in MLB history, shunned from baseball immortality over links to performance-enhancing drugs, have another chance for selection to the Hall of Fame.
All-time home run king Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens are among the eight players listed on the Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot, released Monday by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
To make the ballot, players must have made their primary contribution to the sport since 1980. The nominees were determined by the Hall’s Historical Overview Committee, comprised of 11 veteran historians.
Also on the ballot:
–Carlos Delgado, who hit 473 home runs, including 11 straight seasons with at least 25 homers
–Jeff Kent, a four-time Silver Slugger winner and the Most Valuable Player in the National League in 2000
–Don Mattingly, the former New York Yankees captain who was the American League MVP in 1985
–Dale Murphy, a back-to-back NL MVP in 1982-83 who twice led the league in homers and RBIs
–Gary Sheffield, a nine-time All-Star who totaled 509 home runs and 1,676 RBIs during 22 seasons
–Fernando Valenzuela, who sparked “Fernandomania” in Los Angeles as a rookie with the Dodgers in 1981, going on to become the only pitcher to win a league Rookie of the Year and Cy Young in the same season
The results of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee vote will be announced live on MLB Network at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 7. The voters will be 16 people appointed by the Hall of Fame board, with their names announced later this fall.
Bonds, Clemens and Sheffield were among 89 MLB players who were named in the investigative Mitchell Report as players who allegedly used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, who had been commissioned to lead an independent investigation, issued his 409-page report in December 2007.
It’s the findings of that report that have kept certain first-ballot Hall of Famers Bonds, 61, and Clemens, 63, out of Cooperstown.
Both Bonds and Clemens failed to reach the 75% of votes benchmark needed for induction in their 10 years on the traditional ballot.
The eligibility for Bonds, who hit 762 career home runs, and Clemens expired in 2022. They reached their highest totals that year, with Bonds at 66% of the vote and Clemens at 65.2%.
Sheffield, 56, reached 63.9% in his final year of eligibility in 2024.
Each of the nominees except for Valenzuela is still living. He died in October 2024 at 63.
–Field Level Media
