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Each year, the National Baseball Hall of Fame convenes a committee to consider players from various eras of the game who might have been overlooked for induction in Cooperstown.
This year, it’s the Contemporary Baseball Era committee who will consider players who made their biggest impact on the game since 1980.
Monday, the Hall revealed eight players who will be considered by the Contemporary Baseball Era committee:
Eight former big league players comprise the Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot to be reviewed and voted upon Dec. 4 at the Baseball Winter Meetings.
Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling are the candidates the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee will consider for Hall of Fame election for the Class of 2023. All candidates are living.
So that won’t be controversial at all, right?
Of course it will. There’s no doubt, for example, that the performances on the field of Bonds and Clemens rate induction. Other factors worked against their election by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The same is true of Palmeiro and Schilling, and last year, which was Schilling’s final year on the ballot, he specifically asked writers not to vote for him.
At this time I do not know who’s going to be on that committee, but generally it’s comprised of living Hall of Famers, many of whom have previously spoken out about Bonds’ and Clemens’ candidacy. Generally there are 16 people on these committees and it takes 12 votes for induction — but committee members are usually limited in the number of these players they can vote for. In the past that’s been four; it could be different this year.
About the other four, Belle, McGriff, Mattingly and Murphy all do have some Cooperstown credentials, but in the end I believe they all fall short. This committee might feel some pressure to elect someone, because the BBWAA Hall ballot this winter, which will be revealed two weeks from today (November 21), might not have any inductees at all.
In any case, I’m going to let you vote on all eight men named above. (If you can’t see the polls because you are reading this on Google AMP or Apple News, go to a desktop browser to vote.)