By Cory Tell ’14, Staff Writer

For the first time since 1996, and the second time since 1971, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America did not elect a single eligible player to the Hall of Fame when it came time to vote in 2013.

The voting process for the Hall is quite peculiar. Each year, a six-member screening committee prepares a ballot for a selected group of baseball writers to vote on. To qualify for the ballot, the only requirements are a ten-year playing career and a five-year retirement. From this ballot, the writers can select up to ten players. Oftentimes, writers leave several spots blank, only voting for the most-qualified candidates. Players are on the ballot for 15 years, or until they receive fewer than five percent of the vote. This process ensures only the elite make it into the Hall.

The five players who received the largest share of the vote this year were Craig Biggio with 68.2%, Jack Morris with 67.7%, Jeff Bagwell with 59.6%, Mike Piazza with 57.8%, and Tim Raines with 52.2%. Players often increase their share of the vote over time as eligible voters have more time and context with which to consider their candidacy and as the end of the player’s time on the ballot gets closer, making it likely that most of these players will one day find their way into the Hall.

One of the controversies surrounding this year’s vote is the lack of votes that statistically qualified, yet known users of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) received. Barry Bonds, holder of the all-time home run record, received 36.2%, Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young award winner, received 37.6%, Mark McGwire, twice holder of the single season home run record, received 16.9%, and Rafael Palmeiro, who has both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, received 8.8%. Usually, these statistical achievements would be worthy of first-ballot admission, an honor reserved for the true legends of the sport. However, it is clear that a majority of writers believe that PED use disqualifies one from the Hall.

Since the rules of admission do not specifically ban cheaters, many baseball fans were interested to see how severely cheating damaged the candidacy of players. It is clear now that, given the historical precedence of other players who received similar shares of the vote in their first year, cheating is enough to keep a candidate from being enshrined in Cooperstown.

At Newark Academy, one of the many courses offered during the inaugural June Term was the saber metrics class, which looked at various baseballs statistics through an objective analysis of numbers. The course used Microsoft Excel to calculate complicated statistics such as WAR (Wins Above Replacement) and WHIP (Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched).

For the class’s final project, the students had to select two players who they believed deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, and write a report on those ballplayers. They then had to choose one of those two players and present a 10-15 minute presentation to the class on how that player’s stats supported their claim. Several students in the class chose players that were strongly linked to PEDs, such as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. Matt Ratner, who selected Barry Bonds, said, “His stats are absolutely worthy of a Hall of Famer… PEDs are definitely a problem. But what I think is that during that time a vast majority of people [in the league] were doing steroids. Bonds achieved these stats when he was competing against a lot of other guys who were also using steroids. Bonds was a Hall of Famer before he began using PEDs as well.” Mr. Blaskopf, who taught the class, offered a different view when he said, “I’m against the steroid guys being there [the Hall of Fame]… because to me that have been convicted of cheating… They’re cheaters.” However, Mr. Blaskopf did add, “This year I was disappointed that (former Mets catcher Mike) Piazza didn’t get in. For him it was just a case of the implication [that he took steroids], never any proof, there were never any strong hints, just he can’t be that good without cheating.”

Although the writers might not have believed that confirmed or alleged PED-users were worthy of the Hall this year, it is clearly a debate that is, with the aid of complex and relevant statistics from the sabermetrics class, still very much alive at Newark Academy.