Future Hope For Bonds And Clemens

The past few nights weren’t kind to Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines or Ivan Rodriguez.

Heading into the announcement Wednesday evening of baseball’s newest Hall of Fame members, they generally agreed on the symptoms caused by the wait for news about the balloting.

“Anxiety,” Bagwell said.

“Last night was probably the worst night I’ve had out of the 10 years,” said Raines, whose wait was interminable and insane.

“I’ve been having trouble sleeping for three days,” Rodriguez said.

Rest easy. You made it. Bagwell, who played his entire career with the Houston Astros, made it on the seventh try. Raines, a star with the Montreal Expos, was in his final year of eligibility while Rodriguez, 14 times an All-Star catcher, is now the youngest Hall of Famer at 45.

Neither Barry Bonds nor Roger Clemens, the dominant hitter and the dominant pitcher of what became known as the Steroids Era, was elected, but both showed upswings in their vote totals. After the Veterans Committee put Steroids Era Commissioner Bud Selig in the Hall, it was natural to expect some of the resistance to ease.

Players needed to be named on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America; Bonds and Clemens both cleared 50 percent for the first time. So the all-time leader in home runs and the seven-time Cy Young Award winner may be closing in on eventual election where they will join peers hardly their moral superiors.

Baseball’s all-time leader in hits, Pete Rose, also is not in the Hall of Fame and not eligible due to a lifetime ban that followed an investigation of his gambling. He got one write-in vote.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman