Baseball Hall of Fame: Steroid users not welcome here

Users of performance-enhancing drugs have not been forgiven by Hall-of-Fame-voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America. That much became clearer than ever on Wednesday.

Roger Clemens was named on only 37.6% of ballots; home run king Barry Bonds on just 36.2%. To be inducted, a player must be mentioned on 75% of the ballots.

But the most striking example of a player tainted by PED use was illustrated further down the list of 37 players who were potential inductees.

Nineteen players didn’t draw the required 5% to be included on the next ballot.

The next player up the line -- last among players who received enough support to be included in future votes -- is the fourth player in Major League Baseball history with 500 or more home runs and 3,000 or more hits in his career.

Rafael Palmeiro.

Palmeiro was named on just 8.8% of the 569 ballots cast.

Palmeiro certainly has the on-field credentials for induction. His career numbers: 569 home runs and 585 doubles among 3,020 hits, plus 1,835 runs batted in.

But Palmeiro was also implicated as a PED user in a Jose Canseco book and, more damaging, he was suspended by MLB after a positive drug test only a few months after he testified before Congress that he never used a PED.

Palmeiro has maintained that he never knowingly used a PED.

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