Photo credit: Robert Deutsch - USA Today Sports
Three former Orioles are on the 25-man Hall of Fame ballot that was announced on Monday. However, none has an extensive Oriole backgrounds.
Curt Schilling, who received 70 percent of the necessary 75 percent of the vote by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America last year, is the leading returner.
Schilling is in his ninth year of eligibility and won only his first of 216 lifetime wins with the Orioles in 1990. He appeared in 44 games with the Orioles from 1988-1990 before being traded to Houston for Glenn Davis along with Steve Finley and Pete Harnisch on January 10, 1991.
He was acquired from Boston along with Brady Anderson on July 29, 1988 in a trade for Mike Boddicker.
Sammy Sosa also returns for his ninth year of eligibility. Sosa spent just one year of his 18-season major league career with the Orioles, hitting .221 with 14 home runs and 45 RBIs in 102 games in 2005.
Sosa, whose candidacy has been harmed by suspicion of using performance-enhancing drugs, had 545 home runs and was named on 13.9 percent, his highest figure, a year ago.
LaTroy Hawkins, who pitched for the Orioles in 2006, is the only one of 11 newcomers on the ballot with Baltimore ties. Hawkins is 10th on the all-time appearance list with 1,042 games. He was 3-2 with a 4.48 ERA in 60 games. The Orioles were one of 11 teams Hawkins played for.
Besides Schilling and Sosa, there are 12 returning players. Roger Clemens (61 percent), Barry Bonds (60.7) and Omar Vizquel (52.6) are the only players who received half the necessary votes for election last year.
Scott Rolen (35.3), Billy Wagner (31.7), Garry Sheffield (30.5), Todd Helton (29.2), Manny Ramirez (28.2), Jeff Kent (27.5), Andruw Jones (19.4), Andy Pettite (11.3) and Bobby Abreu (5.5) are the others.
To maintain eligibility, players must receive at least five percent of the vote. As long as the five percent minimum is maintained, players must stay on the ballot for up to 10 years. No returning player is in their 10th year of eligibility, though Bonds, Clemens, Schilling and Sosa are in their ninth.
The other newcomers are Mark Buehrle, A.J. Burnett, Michael Cuddyer, Dan Haren, , Tim Hudson, Torii Hunter, Aramis Ramírez, Nick Swisher, Shane Victorino and Barry Zito.
Results will be announced on January 26th, and the induction of any new members will be on July 25th in Cooperstown, New York. They’ll join those elected last year — Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Larry Walker, who were not able to be inducted in July because of the pandemic.
The last Hall of Fame members with Oriole ties were Harold Baines, Mike Mussina and Lee Smith, who were enshrined in 2019.
Note: The Orioles received 18-year-old right-handed pitcher Miguel Padilla from the Houston Astros as the player to be named later in the deal that sent right-hander Hector Velázquez to Houston in July.
Padilla, a native of Venezuela, was 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA and a save in 19 games for Houston’s Dominican Summer League team in 2019.
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Schilling should have been enshrined 7 years ago. Ridiculous he's still waiting (I'm also in the camp that the steroid boys should be inducted as well, but that horse is so dead whipping it produces only dust). I question whether anyone with even a whiff of controversy gets in this year, as MLB, BBWAA and the HOF doesn't want anything to ruin their St. Derek's ascension into heaven.
As long as being an obnoxious jerk is not a disqualification for the Hall of Fame, then I suppose that Schilling's stats, in an era of diminished starting pitching, qualify him.
I don’t see how any of the newcomers even get the 5% to stay on the ballot — maybe Zito but he isn’t really a candidate. With no strong first ballot guys, it would not shock me to see Bonds & Clemens get the bump they need. To me, Clemens and Bonds are both difficult and more saddening because they were no-doubters before the talk of steroids. Personally, I don’t think McGwire & Sosa were HOF without steroids. A-rod & Ramirez were caught and suspended so probably may never go in.
The obnoxious jerk that he is could keep Schilling off this year as baseball doesn’t need any controversy. Yes electing Clemens is controversial but he was in another league as pitcher compared to Schilling with or without the steroids. Same for Bonds he was a hall a famer before the steroids too. Be interested to see how the hall views Arod. His he eligible next year
Schilling deserves to get in. However, he seems to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, especially in the sports media. Does anyone have any idea when the birds will release the new minor league alignment?
Loved watching Bonds hit even at the end. Sad how they drove him out. At the time people acted like he was the only guy. Took years for the public and baseball to admit it was basically everybody.
That stuff didn’t make him a great hitter. It helped him last longer and recover.
It’s funny how we think all the cheating from the “old days” is part of the color and lore of the game. The drinking, fighting and gambling are amusing yarns. The 1919 White Sox took the fall for it all and that let everybody else for the prior 40 years off the hook. Humans are funny like that.
Now we have a new era of moral scolds. Humorless, strident, joyless people who don’t just take the fun out of things, they don’t even let the fun start. What’s actually fun anymore? Can’t see or hear or watch anything without some awful things being brought into it.
The Bonds hysteria ushered in this miserable era, where liking anything is a referendum on who you are as a human being. Beam me up, Scotty. I’m ready.
Schilling/Kid Rock--Libertarian running mates in 2024.
I do not agree that Schilling is an obnoxious jerk. Be that as it may, the Hall of Fame vote is not for Miss Congeniality. Personally, the little unpleasant controversy I've experienced about him came from his critics.
I doubt that he himself would do anything untoward at the ceremony although the epithet "controversial" would
be used as a slur by those who can't simply disagree with him.
Schilling in. Steroid boys out. Cheating is cheating, and frankly the Hall should have nothing to do with them.
Are you certain about Schilling? He had a rather unusual resurgence late in his career, when he was 35 - 40 years old. And yes, I know he publicly criticized steroid use.
Is it your considered opinion, Birdman, that Schilling is a jerk and a junkie? But you still think, as you said
above, that he qualities for the Hall. And I think some players, especially pitchers have late-career resurgences when they get opportunities on the big stage of playoffs and World Series. Without his postseason heroics, I don't think Schilling would be in the conversation. With them, he is.
Without question, I do consider Schilling a jerk, but as I said I don't think that's a disqualification for the HOF.
As far as PED use, I'm not making any allegation, but its fair to note that there are other players who never had a positive test who came under suspicion, based on an unusual "old age" performance level. And while you're correct that some players do have late career resurgences, I think its also accurate to say that most players start a decline by their early to mid-30s, and its very unusual to perform at peak level as Schilling did in his late 30s.
Thanks for the clarification, Birdman. You're right: it's very unusual, which is why he's a HoF candidate. I may be wrong --I really don't remember because I wasn't paying attention-- but I don't think Schilling had a career decline or slump and then came back in any unusual fashion. It seemed to me that he was just a horse with a solid body that lasted. Strength and endurance decline more slowly than speed and agility. I think that's what made him unusual. You may be right, but until there's evidence, I think it's much more probable that he just had good genes and (I think) avoided serious injury. Oh yes, I don't deny anyone's right to think anyone else is a jerk. It's a free country.
just hope writers remember 10 is maximum, not minimum