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For the first time since 2013, no one was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This is also just the ninth time this has occurred since the voting started.
Results from the HOF voting
Curt Schilling, who spent 20 years in the MLB, was the closest to being elected with 71.1% of ballots having him elected. 75% is needed to be elected. Three other players had over 50% of ballots: Barry Bonds, 61.8%, Roger Clemens (61.6%), and Scott Rolen (52.9%). All four received more votes than they did in the 2020 voting but still fell short of the mark.
Curt Schilling, who was in his penultimate year on the ballot, has requested to be off next year’s ballot. He was in the 70s in percent of ballots for the second year. In most cases, when a player gets above the 70% threshold, they eventually get inducted in Coopertown. Schilling, 54, received a lot of backlash for his Twitter posts of recent. This could have been his downfall in not getting enough votes.
National Baseball Hall of Fame President Tim Mead spoke about what was considered when voting for a candidate.
Biggest gainers in 2021
Scott Rolen, 1997 NL Rookie of the Year, was this year’s biggest gainer. Rolen received 17.6% more in 2021 than he did in 2020. This is just his fourth year on the ballot. He still has six more years.
Andruw Jones, 10 Gold Gloves, received votes on 33.9% of ballots this year. That is 14.5% more than last year’s vote. It is also his fourth year on the ballot.
Honoring the 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Class
The National Baseball HOF still plans to formally induct the 2020 class. The 2020 class included Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons, and Marvin Miller.
Tim Mead said, “the Hall of Fame will still host an induction this summer when members of the class of 2020… are formally enshrined July 25th.” Mead said they will “wait and see what the circumstances are”, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that they will have a ceremony in July.
