No One, Including Barry Bonds, Elected to Hall of Fame

For the first time in more than a decade, not one player got the neeeded votes this year

Judgment day has arrived for former Giants slugger Barry Bonds to find out if his Hall of Fame fate and the vote was a big fat no.

In the end, baseball writers chose to send no one. It was only the second time in more than four decades that no one got the needed votes.

Bonds was one of several players who had a cloud of steroids shrouding his candidacy into the Hall of Fame. He received 36.2 percent of the vote. He needed 75-percent.

Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, topped the 37 candidates with 68.2 percent of the 569 ballots. That was still 39 votes shy.

Former Oakland A's slugger Mark McGuire was also on the ballot. He only received 16.9 percent of the vote. The players who received the top votes are shown in a graphic below.

Since 1965, the only years the writers didn't elect a candidate were when Yogi Berra topped the 1971 vote by appearing on 67 percent of the ballots cast and when Phil Niekro headed the 1996 ballot at 68 percent. Both were chosen the following years when they achieved the 75 percent necessary for election.

Results were announced at 11 a..m. California time.

Much of the hype around this year's candidates focused  on first-time eligibles including Bonds, baseball's only seven-time Most Valuable Player, and Roger Clemens, the only seven-time Cy Young Award winner.

Also on the ballot for the first time were Sammy Sosa and Mike Piazza, power hitters whose statistics have been questioned because of the Steroids Era, and Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits all for the Houston Astros. Curt Schilling, 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA in postseason play, was another ballot rookie.

Votes:

Craig Biggio 388 (68.2%), Jack Morris 385 (67.7%), Jeff Bagwell 339 (59.6%), Mike Piazza 329 (57.8%), Tim Raines 297 (52.2%), Lee Smith 272 (47.8%), Curt Schilling 221 (38.8%), Roger Clemens 214 (37.6%), Barry Bonds 206 (36.2%), Edgar Martinez 204 (35.9%), Alan Trammell 191 (33.6%), Larry Walker 123 (21.6%), Fred McGriff 118 (20.7%), Dale Murphy 106 (18.6%), Mark McGwire 96 (16.9%), Don Mattingly 75 (13.2%), Sammy Sosa 71 (12.5%), Rafael Palmeiro 50 (8.8%).

By receiving fewer than 29 votes (less than 5 percent), Bernie Williams 19 (3.3%), Kenny Lofton 18 (3.2%), Sandy Alomar Jr. 16 (2.8%), Julio Franco 6 (1.1%), David Wells 5 (0.9%), Steve Finley 4 (0.7%), Shawn Green 2 (0.4%), Aaron Sele 1 (0.2%), Jeff Cirillo 0, Royce Clayton 0, Jeff Conine 0, Roberto Hernandez 0, Ryan Klesko 0, Jose Mesa 0, Reggie Sanders 0, Mike Stanton 0, Todd Walker 0, Rondell White 0 and Woody Williams 0 are no longer eligible for election by the BBWAA.

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