There’s a definite trend in the voting for baseball’s Hall of Fame working in favor of those remaining on the ballot — but it does not appear the electorate will get young enough fast enough for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
For me, that was the most significant storyline to come from the announcement of the 2020 class Jan. 21, although there were at least two others worthy of such attention. Unfortunately, the bigger story is likely to be the one voter who deprived Derek Jeter of becoming the second (successive) unanimous choice in history, following teammate Mariano Rivera, the first to accomplish that feat a year ago.
Jeter’s ticket to Cooperstown seemingly was punched during his first five years, when the Yankees won four World Series championships, so that one non-vote was the only piece of news providing suspense about his election. That will be debated, no doubt hotly, longer than a couple other notable takes from this election.
