Baseball HOF committee voting on inductees

The Baseball HOF’s Contemporary Baseball Player Era committee meets today in San Diego to vote on a group of players including  Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling for potential induction. The HOF has dealt with Bonds, Clemens and Schilling “for what is now 11 years,” and after they all missed on induction through the BBWAA vote, today “will decide the matter.” For Bonds and Clemens, today essentially “serves as a referendum for how the Hall will treat suspected PED users.” Any candidate passed over today “will be eligible for the Class of 2026,” but “at that point they would have been rejected 10 times by the BBWAA and at least once by one of the era committees.” The HOF “could move on to other players without much blowback” (BOSTON GLOBE, 12 /3). Today's vote features one of the "most diverse ballots one could ever imagine." There are "five acknowledged scoundrels of variation" -- Bonds, Clemens, Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Belle -- "on one side, and three genuine class acts -- Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff and Dale Murphy -- on the other." The deliberations of the 16-member voting committee “figure to be fascinating” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 12/3).