MLB Elects No Members to Hall of Fame in 2013

If you were planning your family’s summer vacation around heading East to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown to soak in Induction Week, you’d better go back to the drawing board. Major League Baseball will be inducting absolutely no one into the Hall of Fame in 2013, as the Baseball Writers of America failed to give any player eligible the required amount of votes.

Former Houston Astros star Craig Biggio lead the voting with 68.2 percent of the vote, but fell short of the required 75 percent needed to be elected. The closest player to Biggio was former Minnesota Twins pitcher Jack Morris who tallied 67.7 percent of the votes, picking up three more than he had during last year’s vote.

This year will mark the first time since 1996 that the Hall of Fame will not be electing any members. Many writers made their ballot a protest to the steroids era, with as many as five writers submitting blank ballots.

Major League Baseball released a statement today that addressed there not being anyone inducted into Cooperstown. Basically, their explanation had little to do with the steroid scandal that will plague most upcoming elections, and more to do with the fact that the people who didn’t get in this year weren’t good enough to get in.

"Major League Baseball recognizes that election to the Hall of Fame is our game’s most extraordinary individual honor.  Achieving enshrinement in Cooperstown is difficult, as it should be, and there have been seven other years when no one was elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.  While this year did not produce an electee, there are many worthy candidates who will merit consideration in the future.  We respect both the longstanding process that the Hall of Fame has in place and the role of the BBWAA, whose members have voted in the Hall of Fame’s elections since 1936."

There is a great possibility that some of these players get in next year, as some of the more hard-lined writers don’t believe in giving first ballot Hall of Fame nods to players they don’t see as deserving.

But the major gripe some baseball fans have with this news is that baseball writers have taken it upon themselves to become the moral authority when it comes to what players do during their careers. Barry Bonds hit a million home runs, but he used steroids (allegedly) to do so. Ty Cobb is one of the best baseball players to ever play the game, but was a racist biggot and a generally unlikable character both on and off the field.

So lesson to all you kids out there. You can be a great baseball player and break records, just make sure you’re giant racist douchebag instead of a doper.