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Fred McGriff elected into Hall of Fame via Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee
Fred McGriff, who the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee elected into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, spent a season and a half withe the Cubs.
AP
SAN DIEGO — The Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee unanimously elected first baseman Fred McGriff into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.
McGriff, who played for six different teams in his career, spent a season and a half with the Cubs toward the end of his playing days. He posted a .278/.361/.518 slash line with Chicago in 2001 and 2002.
The debate over the Hall of Fame’s character clause loomed large Sunday, when the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee considered a ballot of eight former players.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, got a second chance at the Hall of Fame this year with their inclusion on the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee ballot. They both fell off the BBWAA ballot after last year, falling short of the 75 % mark needed to be inducted in a player’s 10 years on the ballot.
Curt Schilling, whose Hall of Fame case was tinged by a history of bigoted social media posts, requested to be removed from the BBWAA’s balloting process in his final year of eligibility. He said he preferred to be judged by former players, via the era committees. Schilling didn’t get his wish a year ago, but on Sunday, those peers weighed in.
The other four players on the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee ballot this winter were Albert Belle, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy and Rafael Palmeiro.
A panel of 16, chock full of Chicago ties, decided their fate. They needed to be included on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the committee members to be elected into Cooperstown.
The committee, appointed by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors, included seven Hall of Fame players, three of whom played for the Cubs – Greg Maddux, Ryne Sandberg and Lee Smith – plus White Sox legend Frank Thomas. Former Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and current White Sox executive vice president Ken Willians also served on the committee.
BBWAA Hall of Fame balloting will determine the rest of the 2023 HOF class. The results of that election will be announced Jan. 24.