But now, in their 10th year of eligibility, the two baseball legends have yet to be invited to the National Baseball Hall of Fame — and it’s far from certain they ever will be.
Bonds and Clemens were linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs through the 2007 Mitchell Report by senator-turned-baseball-investigator George Mitchell. But neither player ever failed an MLB test for steroids and Bonds only admitted to using substances he said he was told were an arthritis balm and flaxseed oil.
Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, before penalties were in place, and admitted to using “a banned substance” after the results were leaked in 2009.
“So I can vote for Bonds and Clemens based on how dominant they were overall (and, to a degree, before PED use was suspected) but not Manny Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez (making his ballot debut), who failed tests and were suspended,” he wrote.
Topkin said he would also vote for David Ortiz, who was dogged by steroid speculation after he reportedly tested positive in anonymous survey testing in 2003. MLB’s official testing program went in effect the next year and Ortiz never failed.
Some votes already revealed
Bonds (77.7%) and Clemens (76.6%) are above the 75% threshold needed for election, but less than 50% of possible ballots are known and in past years the actual percentage of total votes ends up being lower.
Rodriguez and Sosa, who was also implicated in the 2003 survey testing, each had vote percentages far too low to be elected.
What some voters said
Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, a first-time voter, said he had voted for Bonds, Clemens, Rodriguez, Ortiz and others.
But Mark Faller of the Arizona Republic wrote that he couldn’t vote for guys like Bonds and Clemens. He says the incredible statistics from the latter years of their careers — totals no other players put up — are impossible to ignore.
If the vote were on statistics only, Bonds, Clemens and Rodriguez would be shoo-ins.
Bonds, who played left field for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants during his 22-year career, is Major League Baseball’s all-time leader with 762 career home runs. He hit a record 73 in one season.
He was named National League MVP a record seven times, including four seasons in a row, and won eight Gold Glove awards for his defense.
Clemens, a dominating starting pitcher, racked up 354 wins and 4,672 strikeouts over his 24-year career with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros. Clemens ranks third on MLB’s all-time strikeouts list and is ninth on the all-time wins list. He was on two Yankees World Series-winning teams.
Rodriguez finished fourth all-time in home runs and RBIs, won three MVP awards and was on one World Series winner. During his career, he played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers and third base for the New York Yankees.
Last year was a shutout
If the writers don’t elect anyone for induction, it would be the second consecutive year and the 10th time since voting began in 1936.
Last year, former pitcher Curt Schilling fell short 16 votes of election, leaving him with only 71.1% of the electorate.
In a long Facebook post, Schilling requested to be removed from the ballot, but he was included again this time, his last year of eligibility on the writers’ ballot.
According to the Hall of Fame, that committee comprises 16 voters who are members of the hall, executives or veteran media members.
CNN’s Jill Martin, Amir Vera and Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.
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