Browsing: Clemens

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Kent was elected to baseballâ€s Hall of Fame on Sunday by the contemporary era committee, while steroids-tainted stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were among seven players who fell short once again.

Kent appeared on 14 of 16 ballots, two more than the 12 ballots needed for the 75% minimum.

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Carlos Delgado received nine votes, followed by Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy with six each.

Bonds, Clemens, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela each received fewer than five votes.

Kent will be inducted at the hall in Cooperstown, New York, on July 26 along with anyone chosen by the Baseball Writers†Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 20.

A five-time All-Star second baseman, he batted .290 with 377 homers and 1,518 RBIs over 17 seasons with Toronto (1992), the New York Mets (1992-96), Cleveland (1996), San Francisco (1997-2002), Houston (2003-04) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2005-08).

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His 351 home runs as a second baseman are the most by a player at that position.

Kent received 15.2% in his first BBWAA appearance in 2014 and a high of 46.5% in the last of his 10 times o the ballot in 2023.

The Hall in 2022 restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years, setting up panels to consider the contemporary era from 1980 on, as well as the classic era. The contemporary baseball era holds separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.

Each committee meets every three years. Contemporary managers, executives and umpires will be considered in December 2026, classic era candidates in December 2027 and contemporary era players again in December 2028.

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Under a change announced by the Hall last March, candidates who received fewer than five votes are not eligible for that committeeâ€s ballot during the next three-year cycle. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot and again receives fewer than five votes would be barred from future ballot appearances.

Bonds and Clemens fell short in 2022 in their 10th and final appearances on the BBWAA ballot, when Bonds received 260 of 394 votes (66%) and Clemens 257 (65.2%). Sheffield received 63.9% in his final BBWAA vote in 2024, getting 246 votes and falling 43 shy.

Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens maintains he never used PEDs. Sheffield said he was unaware that substances he used during training ahead of the 2002 season contained steroids.

A seven-time NL MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds set the career home run record with 762 and the season record with 73 in 2001.

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A seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens went 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts, third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Randy Johnson (4,875).

The December 2027 ballot is the first chance for Pete Rose to appear on a Hall ballot after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred decided in May that Roseâ€s permanent suspension ended with his death in September 2024. The Hall prohibits anyone on the permanent ineligible list from appearing on a ballot.

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Jeff Kent is headed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were once again left out in the cold by voters. The five-time All-Star second baseman was granted enshrinement on Sunday by committee vote, with Bonds and Clemens again falling short after 10 failed BBWAA elections and their first failed committee vote. For election, candidates needed 12 votes from this year’s 16-member Contemporary Era Committee.

The newest Hall of Fame member will be formally inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, alongside whichever players make it through this winter’s BBWAA voting. Carlos Beltran is the only player above the needed 75% among the few votes that have so far been revealed.

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New rule means Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens can’t reach Cooperstown until at least 2031

This year’s committee had eight players up for a vote: Bonds, Clemens, Kent, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.

Kent got 14 votes, and Delgado was next with nine. Mattingly and Murphy each got six, while Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela all got fewer than five. Due to a 2025 rule change, failing to get five or more votes in this cycle means Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela will be ineligible for the next Contemporary Era ballot in 2028.

That means the earliest that Bonds and Clemens could make the Hall is 2031.

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This year’s voting body consisted of seven Hall of Fame players (Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount), two owners (Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers and Arte Moreno of the Los Angeles Angels), four former general managers (Doug Melvin, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan) and three media members (Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark).

Jeff Kent is the all-time HR leader among second basemen

Kent played in MLB for 17 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was a late bloomer, accruing all of his five All-Star nods, four Silver Sluggers and 2000 NL MVP award in his 30s.

He won that MVP while playing alongside Bonds with the Giants, slashing .334/.424/.596 with 33 homers and 125 RBI at the keystone position. By the time he retired, Kent was the all-time leader in homers among second basemen, with 354 of his 377 career homers at the position.

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He finished with a career slash line of .290/.356/.500 and 55.4 WAR. Going off the WAR-based JAWS metric used to measure Hall of Fame cases, Kent rates as the 22nd-best second baseman ever.

After retiring in 2008, Kent was first up for Hall of Fame election in 2014 and received 15.2% of the BBWAA vote. As often happens, his vote share steadily climbed over his 10 years of eligibility, but it peaked at just 46.5% on his final ballot in 2023.

This was his first go-around in the committee process, and it will be his last.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are the 2 most controversial Hall of Fame candidates ever

Both Bonds and Clemens are among the most accomplished players in the history of baseball and would be automatic first-ballot additions under normal circumstances, but every sports fan is well aware that their circumstances aren’t normal. Due to allegations of performance-enhancing drug use, the candidacies of Bonds and Clemens have hung over the Hall of Fame since their final MLB seasons in 2007.

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Bonds has admitted to unknowingly using the anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, while Clemens has persistently denied any steroid use, but significant evidence exists that both men knowingly took PEDs — so much so that their claims of innocence under oath before Congress led to perjury trials. Clemens was acquitted in his case, while Bonds was found guilty but had his conviction overturned on appeal.

Meanwhile, Kent was one of the public crusaders against steroid users among players. He once urged Bonds to “own up” to his steroid use and advocated for blood testing in addition to urine, with one of his lines even making it into the introduction of the Mitchell Report.

Significant allegations in Bonds’ and Clemens’ personal lives also became an issue as their candidacies dragged on. Bonds’ ex-wife accused him of physical abuse on several occasions during their marriage, and a former mistress accused him of verbal abuse and death threats.

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In 2008, the New York Daily News reported that Clemens had been engaged in an affair with country singer Mindy McCready since she was 15 years old. McCready confirmed she had a relationship but denied it began when she was 15, while Clemens apologized for unspecified “mistakes in my personal life” but denied the claim that he had an improper relationship with a 15-year-old girl. McCready committed suicide in 2013.

Despite the differences in their respective list of scandals, Bonds and Clemens always walked a similar path in the Hall of Fame voting. They first joined the BBWAA ballot in 2013, with Bonds receiving 36.2% of the vote and Clemens getting 37.6%.

Over the next nine years, they never finished more than 2% away from each other. They were an easy yes for any voter who thought their respective allegations shouldn’t override the Hall’s character clause. They were an easy no for voters who couldn’t get past the scandals. The Hall itself certainly didn’t want them to make it in, as it opted to cut the number of years a player can stay on the BBWAA ballot from 15 years to 10 just so it wouldn’t have to deal with their candidacies for so long.

That BBWAA candidacy ran out for the pair in 2022, with Bonds topping out at 66% and Clemens at 65.2%, dozens of votes short of the 75% needed to get in. That sent their candidacies to the committee process, in which they got fewer than four votes out of 16 the first time around.

This year’s committee wound up voting similarly.

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Hall of Fame players Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount are among 16 members of the contemporary era committee that will consider an eight-man Hall ballot that includes Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy.

Owners Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers and Arte Moreno of the Los Angeles Angels also are on the committee that gathers Sunday at the winter meetings in Orlando, Florida.

They will be joined by former major league general managers Kim Ng, Doug Melvin, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan, and media members Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark of The Athletic and historian Steve Hirdt, the Hall said Tuesday.

Hall chair Jane Forbes Clark will be the non-voting chair of the committee, which considers a ballot that also includes Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela. The contemporary era considers players whose greatest contributions to the sport were from 1980 on.

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Each voter can select up to three candidates, and 75% or more of ballots are needed for election. Anyone chosen will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 26 along with players voted in by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 20.

Under a change announced by the Hall last March, any candidate on the ballot who receives fewer than five votes will not be eligible for that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot and again receives fewer than five votes would be barred from future ballot appearances.

Bonds and Clemens fell short in 2022 in their 10th and final appearances on the BBWAA ballot, when Bonds received 260 of 394 votes (66%) and Clemens 257 (65.2%). Sheffield received 63.9% in his final BBWAA vote in 2024, getting 246 votes and falling 43 shy.

Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens maintains he never used PEDs. Sheffield said he was unaware that substances he used during training ahead of the 2002 season contained steroids.

A seven-time NL MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds set the career home run record with 762 and the season record with 73 in 2001.

A seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens went 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts, third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Randy Johnson (4,875).

Sheffield, a nine-time All-Star and the 1992 NL batting champion, hit .292 with 509 homers, 1,676 RBIs and 253 stolen bases. He started his big league career at shortstop, moved to third base and then the outfield.

Murphy, a seven-time All-Star outfielder who hit .265 with 398 homers, 1,266 RBIs and 161 steals, was on the BBWAA ballot 15 times and received a high of 116 votes (23.2%) in 2000.

Mattingly received a high of 145 votes (28.2%) in the first of 15 appearances on the BBWAA ballot in 2001. A six-time All-Star first baseman, he hit .307 with 222 homers and 1,099 RBIs in 14 years.

Delgado got 3.8% of the 2015 BBWAA vote and the outfielder was dropped from future ballots. He hit .280 with 473 homers and 1,512 RBIs.

Kent got a high of 46.5% in the last of 10 BBWAA ballot appearances in 2023. A five-time All-Star second baseman, he batted .290 with 377 homers and 1,518 RBIs.

Valenzuela, who died in October 2024, received 6.2% support from the BBWAA in 2003 and 3.8% in 2004, then was dropped. A six-time All-Star and the 1981 NL Cy Young Award winner, he was 173-153 with a 3.54 ERA and 2,074 strikeouts in 17 seasons.

The Hall in 2022 restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years, setting up panels to consider the contemporary era from 1980 on as well as the classic era. The contemporary baseball era holds separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.

Each committee meets every three years. Contemporary managers, executives and umpires will be considered in December 2026, classic era candidates in December 2027 and contemporary era players again in December 2028.

The ballot was determined by the BBWAA’s 11-person historical overview committee: Adrian Burgos (University of Illinois), Bob Elliott (Canadian Baseball Network), Steve Hirdt (Stats Perform), La Velle Neal (Minnesota Star Tribune), David O’Brien (The Athletic), Jose de Jesus Ortiz (Our Esquina Media), Jack O’Connell (BBWAA); Jim Reeves (formerly Fort Worth Star-Telegram); Glenn Schwarz (formerly San Francisco Chronicle); Susan Slusser (San Francisco Chronicle); and Mark Whicker (formerly Southern California News Group).

Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp are among 12 newcomers on the BBWAA ballot. Carlos Beltrán heads 15 holdovers after falling 19 votes shy in 2025 balloting.

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