ORLANDO, Fla. – Roger Clemens spent a decade falling short on the Baseball Writers Association of America’s Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
He fared worse against a 16-person committee of Hall of Famers, team owners, former executives, and media members who met Sunday in Orlando, the site of the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings.
Armed with the power to finally send Clemens, arguably the greatest pitcher of the last half-century, the committee was unyielding.
Jeff Kent will be the only Contemporary Era inductee for the Class of 2026.
Voters were allowed to select no more than three candidates apiece. Kent received 14 votes, followed by nine votes for Carlos Delgado, and six apiece for Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy. Neither Clemens, nor Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, or the late Fernando Valenzuela received the requisite five votes to return to the next Contemporary Era ballot.
Clemens’ decorated but controversial major league career spanned 24 seasons from 1984-2007 and included 11 All-Star selections, seven ERA titles, two Triple Crowns, and 1986 American League MVP.
One of the most dazzling homegrown players in Red Sox history, Clemens spent his first 13 seasons in Boston, where he won three of his MLB-record seven Cy Young Awards. Randy Johnson (5), Greg Maddux (4), and Steve Carlton (4), the only other pitchers in major league history to win more than three Cy Youngs, are already enshrined in Cooperstown.
Johnson, Maddux, and Carlton were never accused of using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), though. None of them had a former strength-and-conditioning coach providing used needles and other medical evidence to federal investigators, nor were any of them charged with lying to Congress about it (though said felony charges were eventually cleared). Clemens maintains he never used PEDs.
Many see the ongoing exclusion of Clemens, Bonds, and other supernovas of the era, not their alleged PED use, as the true stain on baseball. They feel induction is long overdue for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to the fact that Bud Selig, commissioner during this period, is himself a Hall of Famer. They point out how many Hall of Famers have been enshrined over the decades despite questionable or even downright deplorable behavior, and argue that ignoring the contributions of said players, the baseball community is preserving and promoting an incomplete history of the game for future generations.
Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch, however, noted while making the announcement on MLB Network, the committee not only discussed each candidate’s career, but their sportsmanship and integrity as well. The result indicates a group even more disinclined to elevate Steroid Era stars than the BBWAA, which added the following Character Clause to their election rules in 1945:
“Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”
Thanks to the new rule instituted by the Hall this year, Clemens only has one more chance on this triennial ballot. Candidates who receive fewer than five votes are ineligible for the next turn. Returning on a later ballot and again failing to receive five votes renders a player ineligible for future ballots.
The remainder of the Class of 2026 will be announced on MLB Network on Jan. 20.
