The 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot includes 11 new names and 14 returning players who were previously on the ballot but did not make it into the Hall of Fame. All members of the Baseball Writers of America Association must turn in their ballots by the end of 2020, with the winners announced in January 2021.
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All eyes will be on returning candidates, including Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. All three were superstars in their day, but none have earned the 75% of votes needed to make the hall.
Schilling came closest last year, getting 70 percent of the vote. Clemens received 61 percent, while Bonds received 60.7 percent. Most observers give Schilling the only chance of making the hall, at least this year.
If players do not make it through the regular BWAA vote, they must hope to get voted in by a special committee down the road. But that hasn’t always worked well, as with players such as Dick Allen, who still hasn’t made the Hall of Fame.
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The New Names on the Ballot
The new names on the 2021 Hall of Fame ballot include the following players.
- Mark Buehrle
- A.J. Burnett
- Michael Cuddyer
- Dan Haren
- LaTroy Hawkins
- Tim Hudson
- Torii Hunter
- Aramis Ramirez
- Nick Swisher
- Shane Victorino
- Barry Zito
No one considers this a very strong list of players. Writing for CBS Sports, Matt Snyder seemed to sum up the general consensus. He predicted none of them would receive the 5% needed to stay on the ballot for a second year – not because they were not good, but because they weren’t Hall of Fame good.
“If there was such a thing as a “Hall of the Very Good” we’d have a crowded class,“ Snyder wrote.
The Focus Is On Holdovers
A player can appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for 10 years. If they aren’t voted in by then, they are removed from the ballot. To stay on the ballot, a player needs at least 5 percent of the vote every time they appear. The votes come from the writers who cover baseball, and they are a tough lot to please.
For example, Schilling, Clemens and Bonds are on the ballot for the 9th time. As noted above, Schilling has come the closest of the three to making it. Getting voted into the hall is about more than statistics, otherwise all three would have sailed in on the first ballot.
The knock on Clemens and Bonds has been the scandal surrounding the use of performance enhancing drugs. Other players having their hall chances impacted by the scandal include Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa and Manny Ramirez.
Biggest Scandals in Baseball History
Schilling’s case is harder to sum up. While he struck out more than 3,000 batters and was the picture of precision on the mound, he has been a controversial figure since retirement. He started a video game company in Rhode Island that cost taxpayers millions. USA Today reports that he also has spent time “gleefully sharing specious xenophobic, transphobic and conspiratorial memes.”
The 14 holdover players who appeared on last year’s ballot, their years on the ballot and their vote percentage in 2020 are as follows.
- Curt Schilling, 9th (70%)
- Roger Clemens, 9th (61.0%)
- Barry Bonds, 9th (60.7%)
- Omar Vizquel, 4th (52.6%)
- Scott Rolen, 4th (35.3%)
- Billy Wagner, 6th (31.7%)
- Gary Sheffield, 7th (30.5%)
- Todd Helton, 3rd (29.2%)
- Manny Ramirez, 5th (28.2%)
- Jeff Kent, 8th (27.5%)
- Andruw Jones, 4th (19.4%)
- Sammy Sosa, 9th (13.9%)
- Andy Pettitte, 3rd (11.3%)
- Bobby Abreu, 2nd (5.5%)
If anyone makes the hall, they will get inducted July 25, 2021 in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 2020 class, who did not get inducted due to the coronavirus, also will get officially enshrined on that day. The 2020 class includes Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons and the late Marvin Miller.
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