Baseball Hall of Fame 2020

Not a great photo but this is a pregame embrace between the captains of the NY teams in 2012. 

So, the smoke has cleared and Jeter and Walker made it in.

Schilling at 70% is likely to make it in next year, if past patterns hold.  Most players who reach 70% eventually get in, often in the next year.  And since the candidates in 2021 are relatively weak, I think it will be Schilling's year.

Bonds and Clemens have stalled out.  They did better with new voters, but there are not enough new voters in the next two years and we know the older voters will not elect them.  I think that their only chance now will be with the Veterans Committee in future years.

Rolen, Wagner, and Sheffield all had sizable vote increases and are above 30% (Rolen at 35%).  I find it interesting that even as Bonds topped out, Sheffield's vote total jumped.  How can someone not vote for Bonds due to steroids but still vote for Sheffield who admitted using creams and clears (given him by Bonds)?  If Sheffield is worthy of your vote, man, Bonds should be more than worthy of it.

Vizquel cracked 50% for the first time and I can see him getting a lot of long looks in the next year or two, given how poor the overall classes will stack up.  I think I read somewhere that only Hodges has ever passed 50% and never been elected or selected by a committee.

There are vicissitudes in the voting that I do not get.  Rolen rises to 35% while Konerko fell off the ballot, for example.  Their numbers are actually close, with Konerko having more power and Rolen the better glove (by far).  Yet Rolen is being talked up as a likely eventual electee.

And if you think that the problem is that the current writers don't know the game like the old timers did, think on this one.  Larry Walker cleared 75% by 6 votes.  Pretty slim margin, all things considered.  But Al Simmons, Willie Keeler, Fergie Jenkins, and Ralph Kiner all cleared by only 1 vote.  Jackie Robinson and Early Wynn only cleared it by 4 votes (for Robinson, racism was still a problem even after he was retired).  And Bill Terry matched Walker at 6.  Meanwhile Luis Aparicio, Rabbit Maranville, and a host of other (in my mind) marginal inductees made it in by many more votes.

Bottom line:  Induction has always been a crap shoot for many inductees--the standards are not at all clear, who you played for and with matters (I am looking at you Pie Traynor), and being liked or disliked by the writers has always mattered a whole lot more than it should.