The 2021 National Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced Tuesday during a live broadcast from the MLB network. The broadcast begins at 6:00 PM ET, with the announcement to appear shortly thereafter. About 400 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America are expected to vote this year. Here are the storylines you need to know.
Players must appear on 75 percent of the ballots submitted to be voted into the Hall of Fame, and there is a chance that there will be no voting for players this year. As of Tuesday afternoon, Curt Schilling appears on 74.9 percent of the public polls, currently covering about half of the total polls. Schilling currently has the highest voting percentage among eligible players.
Historically, the non-public ballots deduct the final percentage of a player. This was certainly true with Schilling. Last year, he appeared at 73.7 percent on public ballots and finished with a final percentage of 70.0 percent. It was 64.7 percent and 60.9 percent the year before, and 57.5 percent and 51.2 percent the year before. So on and so on.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, arguably the biggest hit and pitcher of their generation, have seen their support stagnate in the 50-60 percent range over the past few years. . Schilling’s support is growing and he has a good chance of agreeing at some point.
Of course, this is the penultimate year on the ballot for Bonds, Clemens and Schilling. If they are not voted for this year, all three of them will appear on the ballot paper for the tenth and final time next year. If there is no vote for them then their Hall of Fame fortunes will be transferred to the Eras Committees, which meet every few years to consider players who are not voted in the BBWAA.
Other celebrities at the Hall of Fame poll this year include Todd Helton, Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ramirez, Scott Rolen, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Omar Vizquel and Billy Wagner. This is Sosa’s ninth year on the ballot and Kent’s eighth year on the ballot. Everyone else on the ballot has at least three years left.
If no players are voted for this year, it is the eighth time that the BBWAA has not voted for a player in the Hall of Fame. It also happened in 1945, 1950, 1958, 1960, 1965, 1971, 1996, and 2013. Although no players voted in Cooperstown in 2013, the BBWAA eventually voted eight players on that year’s ballot.
Even though there will be no voting for players this year, there will be an induction ceremony in Cooperstown in July. Last year’s ceremony was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Hall of Fame class in 2020 will be honored this summer. Derek Jeter, Ted Simmons, Larry Walker and the late Marvin Miller were elected last year.
Following this, news and analysis are led to, during and after this year’s Hall of Fame class.