Baseball Writers Vote, Well, Nobody Into Hall Of Fame

Major League Baseball could use some publicity these days, but inducting no one into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is probably not the way to get it.

But that's what happened Tuesday, when not a soul made it into the Hall, despite the baseball writers' opportunity to officially immortalize some of the game's legends. The list of candidates included Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Omar Vizquel, Gary Sheffield and Scott Rolen.

Schilling, whose candidacy was the subject of a column by OutKick's Greg Couch on Tuesday, missed induction by 16 votes. This marked his next-to-last year of eligibility.

Players are elected to the Hall if they are named on at least 75 percent of ballots cast by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. There were 401 ballots submitted in this year's election, including a record total of 14 blanks. Candidates needed 301 votes to be elected.

This year also marks the first shutout since 2013, and only the third ever. On the bright side for the current group, six members from the 2013 ballot were subsequently elected.

"The only players other than Schilling who received more than 50 percent of the vote in the 2021 election were outfielder Barry Bonds with 248 (61.8), pitcher Roger Clemens with 247 (61.6) and third baseman Scott Rolen with 212 (52.9)," a release from the Hall read. "As with Schilling, Bonds and Clemens will be in their final year of BBWAA eligibility in 2022. This was Rolen’s fourth year on the ballot."