Bonds, Clemens Headline Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Era Candidates

Eight candidates no longer eligible for the BBWAA ballot have another opportunity for enshrinement in Cooperstown.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are included among a list of eight former players who have been selected to appear on the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Baseball Era ballot for the Class of 2023.

Bonds and Clemens will be joined by Don Mattingly, Albert Belle, Fred McGriff, Curt Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro and Dale Murphy.

The Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee is a 16-person panel that will vote on Dec. 4. If a player is named on at least 75% of ballots, he will be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and inducted on July 23, 2023.

This year was the 10th and final year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for Bonds, Clemens and Schilling, who will now join the others in hopes of making it to Cooperstown on a different path.

The obvious backdrop of the impending vote is whether or not this will be a way for stigmatized players from the steroid era to make it into the Hall of Fame. It will be a landmark vote in that regard.