When Atlanta Braves legend Fred McGriff fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2019, it was a bit puzzling that he hadn’t received more support than he did. For many of the ballots during his 10 appearances on the Hall of Fame ballot, he often failed to even reach 25% of the vote. While it is fair to consider McGriff a borderline Hall of Famer, that he didn’t get more support despite hitting nearly 500 home runs and being one of the more feared hitters in the league for a long time was confusing especially considering some of the other players that got more consideration during the same period of time.
Going into the vote of the Contemporary Era Committee this weekend to determine which of their eight finalists (if any) were going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, it had been widely predicted that if any player was going to get in, it would be Fred McGriff. While Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have better career numbers and fellow Brave Dale Murphy has his own case, McGriff has zero PED baggage unlike Bonds and Clemens with strong numbers of his own and had more sustained excellence than Murph or many of the other finalists.
Both McGriff and Murph had some cause for optimism when it was announced that two former Braves, Chipper Jones and Greg Maddux, were selected to be members of the Contemporary Era Committee. However, 12 of the 16 members would still have to agree for any candidate to get into Cooperstown. That committee announced the results of their vote tonight.
Results of the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Ballot (12 votes needed for election): Fred McGriff (16 votes, 100.0%); Don Mattingly (8 votes, 50%); Curt Schilling (7 votes, 43.8%); Dale Murphy (6 votes, 37.5%); Belle, Bonds, Clemens and Palmeiro each received fewer than 4
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 5, 2022
Congratulations to Fred McGriff on being elected to the Hall of Fame
As you can see from the voting, the committee agreed that McGriff was a Hall of Famer as all 16 voters decided that he was worthy of enshrinement. Sadly, Dale Murphy only received six votes from the Contemporary Era committee which makes his future enshrinement all the less likely. Don Mattingly was the next closest player to getting the nod as he received eight votes from the 16 voter panel.
In a somewhat surprising twist, the guys who have the best careers on paper, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, received less than four votes apiece. While it was hard to see them getting in this year, the lack of support does lead one to think that they are never going to get in without a pretty serious change in philosophical direction.