The early ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame are being totaled and it seems as if the tides have shifted for some candidates.
According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the early votes for this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame ballot show a dramatic shift in voting numbers for many controversial stars, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
Both Bonds and Clemens had some of the best careers in the history of baseball, however, they have been overshadowed on the ballot these past few years due to their abuse of performance enhancing drugs.
It does seem like the two are gaining a great amount of momentum on this ballot with both of them polling at 70 percent, just under the 75 percent amount needed for induction. Nine voters who did not cast ballots for Bonds previously are voting for him this year and 10 are doing the same for Clemens.
In last year’s ballot, both received just about 45 percent of the vote, so this is a very promising sign for their hopes to be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Two other players who are looking like they could be inducted this year based on the early polling are Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell. Both are currently drawing around 90 percent of the vote which is way past the 75 percent needed.
It will be interesting how the rest of the Hall of Fame voting plays out and how the BBWAA will deal with potential backlash from many angry fans if Bonds and Clemens do indeed receive induction this year.