NEW YORK — After a narrow miss last year, Bert Blyleven told voters they finally got it right by sending him into the Hall of Fame along with Roberto Alomar.
All-star sluggers Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Bagwell, Mark McGwire and Juan Gonzalez didn’t come close in Wednesday’s election. No telling if they ever will, either, after Hall voters sent a clear message: The drug cloud isn’t going to cover Cooperstown.
“The writers are saying that this was the steroids era, like they have done Mark McGwire,” Blyleven said after finally making it to the Hall on his 14th try. “They’ve kind of made their point.”
Blyleven was chosen on 79.7 percent — it takes 75 percent approval by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to reach the shrine. The great curveballer won 287 games, threw 60 shutouts and ranks fifth with 3,701 strikeouts. He was down to his next-to-last try on the ballot.
“It’s been 14 years of praying and waiting,” Blyleven said. “And thank the Baseball Writers of America for, I’m going to say, finally getting it right.”
Alomar was picked on 90 percent of the ballots. The 12-time all-star won a record 10 Gold Gloves at second base, hit .300 and helped the Toronto Blue Jays win titles in 1992 and 1993.
Palmeiro, McGwire, Bagwell and Gonzalez fared poorly, with BBWAA members reluctant to choose bulky hitters who posted big numbers in the 1990s and 2000s.
“Guys cheated,” Blyleven said. “They cheated themselves and their teammates. The game of baseball is to be played clean. I think we went through a steroid era, and I think it’s up to the writers to decide when and who should go in through that era.”
A lot of them have already decided.
“They cheated to get ahead, plain and simple, creating an imbalance in the game and a mess for the voters,” Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle said. “They can enjoy the big contracts they earned as a result, but they won’t get my vote.”
Bagwell got 41.7 percent in his first year on the ballot. His career stats are among the best for first basemen since World War II — .297 batting average, .408 on-base percentage and .540 slugging percentage. He hit 449 home runs, topped 1,500 RBIs and runs and ran the bases hard. He was a rookie of the year, an NL MVP and a Gold Glove winner.
Bagwell never tested positive, there were no public allegations against him and he was adamant he never used illegal drugs. Still, many voters and fans aren’t sure yet how to assess the huge numbers.
“Suspicion is ridiculous,” Bagwell said. “Because I worked out? Come on.”
Palmeiro was listed on just 64 of a record 581 ballots (11 percent) in his first try despite lofty career numbers — he is joined by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the lone players with more than 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. But Palmeiro failed a drug test and was suspended by Major League Baseball in 2005.
“I thought more voters would look at my overall career and put more emphasis or weight on what I have done and not just on a positive (drug) test at the end of my career. There was a message there to be sent, and it was received,” Palmeiro said.
Alomar and Blyleven will be joined by Pat Gillick at the induction ceremony July 24. The longtime executive was picked last month by the Veterans Committee.
