Veterans Committee, Like Baseball Writers, Snubs Three Controversial Players In Latest Hall Of Fame Vote

After he had again failed to gain the necessary 75% of the baseball writers’ vote for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, former pitcher Curt Schilling took to Facebook in January 2021 to pen a 1,200-word essay on why he wanted his name removed from the writers’ ballot before he was to make his 10th and final appearance.

Schilling, 56, who won three World Series rings (one with the Arizona Diamondbacks and two with the Boston Red Sox) and was at his most dominant during the postseason during a 20-year career, took that social media opportunity to blast members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. But Schilling also denigrated two fellow baseball contemporaries who were on the ballot with him. Although Schilling didn’t name the two players, he appeared to reference Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both of whom have performance-enhancing drug ties.

“But I’m now somehow in a conversation with two men who cheated, and instead of being accountable they chose to destroy others lives to protect their lie,” Schilling wrote. “I will not participate in the final year of voting (for the Class of 2022). I am requesting to be removed from the ballot. I’ll defer to the veterans committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player.”

During the decade Schilling was on the BBWAA ballot, he drew scrutiny and criticism for numerous social media posts — everything from his 2016 tweet applauding a man at a Donald Trump rally wearing a T-shirt that suggested lynching journalists (“Ok, so much awesome here…” Schilling wrote in a since-deleted post) to a tweet in support of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

When it came time for a veterans committee to consider the Hall of Fame candidacy of Schilling, Bonds, and Clemens, however, the results were the same, as all three men were again denied election to Cooperstown. The 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee — comprised of Hall of Famers, veteran writers and baseball executives — voted on a group that included Schilling, home run king Bonds, seven-time Cy Young winner Clemens, Fred McGriff, Rafael Palmeiro, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy and Albert Belle.

Players needed 12 votes for election, and McGriff was the only one of the group to gain entry. He was a unanimous selection. Schilling received seven votes, while Bonds, Clemens and Palmeiro — another player with steroid/PED links and who failed a drug test in 2005 — each garnered less than four votes.

Baseball Hall of FameFred McGriff unanimously elected to Hall of Fame

The Contemporary Era Committee results suggest that there is a strong anti-steroid sentiment outside of the baseball writers community. Palmeiro had over 3,000 hits (3,020) and more than 500 home runs (569) during his 20-year career, but his defiant testimony before a 2005 congressional committee that he never used PEDs backfired spectacularly that same year, when he tested positive for the powerful steroid stanozolol.

Bonds is the all-time career home run leader (762) and Clemens has more than 300 career wins (354), but their PED links have shadowed both men throughout their post-playing lives. Both Clemens and Bonds appeared in the 2007 Mitchell Report on the sport’s doping past, and both went to trial in federal court for perjury and obstruction charges. Their legal troubles stemmed from testimony each gave in PED-related investigations. Clemens was acquitted on all charges in his 2012 case, while Bonds was convicted of one obstruction count in 2011. That conviction was later overturned by a federal appeals court.

Schilling’s latest Hall snub is more complex — did the veterans committee also factor heavily the “integrity” criteria when it considered Schilling’s candidacy, or did his statistics not meet Cooperstown credentials? Former pitchers Greg Maddux, Jack Morris, and Lee Smith were part of the Contemporary Era Committee who voted this time. Morris and Smith were both elected to the Hall of Fame by veterans committees.

In his 2021 Facebook post, Schilling said he wasn’t worthy of joining the baseball immortals: “I don’t think I’m a hall of famer as I’ve often stated but if former players think I am then I’ll accept that with honor.”

But while Schilling congratulated McGriff on his election to Cooperstown, the right-hander otherwise refrained from comment on the December 4 Contemporary Era Committee results. Schilling did not respond to a text request for comment.

Clemens, 60, posted a lengthy Twitter thread after he was denied election by the writers in his final ballot appearance — “I didn’t play baseball to get into the HOF,” read part of his post — but the right-hander did not react on social media to the Contemporary Era results. Bonds, 58, likewise didn’t post any remarks on his Twitter account after the Dec. 4 results were announced.

According to the Hall of Fame, the Contemporary Era Committee will next consider player candidates for the 2026 Cooperstown class. The BBWAA results for the Hall class of 2023 will be announced at the end of January.