President Trump is convinced that Roger Clemens belongs in the Hall of Fame, but actually getting the seven-time Cy Young winner inducted into Cooperstown will require more than just persuading the baseball commissioner, baseball writers, or baseball fans in general to share that opinion.
Instead, Clemens’ immediate fate could be decided this winter by 16 yet-to-be-determined individuals who will vote on the Hall of Fame’s upcoming Contemporary Baseball Era Players ballot. But first Clemens will have to be selected for that ballot, after receiving very little support the last time he was up for election in 2022.
For now, President Trump’s weekend declaration that Clemens should be enshrined “NOW” has changed nothing about the ongoing, still-controversial candidacy of one of the game’s greatest right-handed pitchers, who would have been inducted long ago if not for his connections to performance-enhancing drugs.
Clemens has long denied that he took steroids, but he’s been linked to performance-enhancing drugs by the Mitchell Report and by his former trainer Brian McNamee.
Trump weighing in is an unexpected wrinkle, and his opinion could ultimately influence some Hall voters — but as was the case with Pete Rose in the spring, there is a process in place, and there seems to be little anyone could do to truly induct Clemens immediately.
When will Clemens be up for election?
It could be as early as this winter. Clemens is eligible for inclusion on the upcoming Contemporary Baseball Era Players ballot, which is part of the Eras Committee process that considers players who have not been elected by the writers during their 10 years of BBWAA eligibility.
Clemens was on the Contemporary Players ballot in 2022 — just months after his 10th and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot — but did not come close to election. He got less support from the Era Committee than he’d gotten from the baseball writers.
The Contemporary Players ballot comes up for election every three years and will be voted on again in December. The ballot consists of eight players whose greatest impact came after 1980. The ballot itself is created by the Historical Overview Committee, but it’s voted on by a separate Era Committee.
The Hall of Fame will announce its upcoming Contemporary Players ballot this fall (the announcement usually happens soon after the World Series). Among the other names that could be included are Barry Bonds, Keith Hernandez, Don Mattingly, Kenny Lofton, Dale Murphy, Lou Whitaker and Curt Schilling. The 16-person committee that will vote in December will not be determined until after the ballot is decided.
So, who actually votes for this Contemporary Players ballot?
That’s a good question, and an important one. A different 16-person Era Committee is created each year to vote on each specific ballot, and the names aren’t announced until the ballot is about to be decided in December.
Era Committees consist of 16 voters — usually six or seven former players, six or seven executives, and three members of the BBWAA. The Hall of Fame board of directors has final say in approving the committee members.
When Harold Baines was elected in 2019, the Era Committee included two of Baines’s closest allies in Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, causing some second-guessing about whether those committee members gave Baines a sort of home field advantage in being elected.
“So in recent years,” The Athletic’s Jayson Stark wrote in May, “it appears the Hall has taken greater pains to avoid those sorts of conflicts of interest.”
The members of the upcoming Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee will not be determined until after the ballot is settled.
Is a committee more likely to vote for Clemens than the writers?
Not necessarily. To be elected, the Hall of Fame requires that a player receive 75 percent of the vote. That’s true of the BBWAA ballot and of the Era Committee ballot.
Clemens got 65.2 percent of the vote during his last year on the BBWAA ballot, but he got less than 25 percent of the vote in his first appearance on the Era Committee ballot.
A candidate needs 12 votes to be elected. Each of the 16 committee members can vote for only three players.
Clemens won a record seven Cy Young awards. (Ron Vesely / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The Hall of Fame does not announce vote totals for players who receive minimal support, and Clemens was among those who got less than four votes in 2022 (same for Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro, two others notably linked to steroids).
According to the Hall of Fame’s website: “The Committee shall consider all candidates and voting shall be based upon the individual’s record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the game.”
The Hall of Fame added a rule this year saying candidates who receive less than five votes in multiple years are no longer eligible for Era Committee ballots, but that rule is in effect only for future ballots. Clemens’ poor showing in 2022 will not affect his future eligibility.
Who voted against Clemens last time?
Fred McGriff was a unanimous selection when the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee last met in 2022. None of the other players on the 2022 ballot got more than eight votes.
The Hall of Fame does not reveal how each committee member voted, but it’s notable that the 2022 committee included Chicago White Sox executive Ken Williams, who had once said he would not sign a player suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs. It also included three Hall of Fame players — Frank Thomas, Jack Morris, and Ryne Sandberg — who’d been publicly critical of steroid users and their place in baseball history.
“I don’t mind these guys doing what they want to do for their families and make their money,” Thomas said in 2017. “But don’t come calling to the Hall of Fame and say, ‘I’m supposed to be in the Hall of Fame,’ when you know you cheated.”
That sentiment is shared by many players, including some Hall of Famers who take great pride in having played the game clean.
“There is a huge definition of the Hall of Fame that all writers are supposed to consider when they elect a person,” Morris said in 2011, before his election. “And (part) of that definition is, did they uphold the integrity of the game? And by cheating, that is not upholding the integrity of the game. … I’m not alone, by the way, in that personal belief. Because what message would we be sending to our kids? Do whatever it takes to win. And that’s not a good message.”
(Top photo: Jim Rogash / Getty Images)