Roger Rubin's 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot

The process in casting a Hall of Fame ballot is, for me, a sort of three-pronged process.

For the vast number of players who are back on the ballot after coming up short, I’ve already made decisions on their candidacies. If I voted for him last time and he still hasn’t gained entry, I will vote for him again.

Next there is a look at the players who appear on the ballot for the first time. I generally see them in three categories. There are the ones who belong without a doubt. There are the ones I feel are worthy of my vote but require some rigorous research and contemplation. And there are the ones I know I won’t vote for.

The third part of the process – one I rarely feel is necessary – is the re-examination of someone who I have not voted for.

I had to do that this year with Larry Walker. Walker is on the ballot for the 10th and final time. His candidacy has steadily gained momentum over the past three years, and several colleagues who cover baseball had urged me to take another look.

I changed my position only once before, on Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens and for the same reason. I didn’t vote for them in their first five years on the ballot. I had initially hoped that there would be some new information about their suspected use of performance-enhancing drugs or some sort of direction from Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame about how we should view players suspected of using PEDs. Voters got neither.

Bonds and Clemens were among the very best in the sport during the era they played. We also understand that steroids and other performance-enhancers were rampant in the game during that era, taken by stars as well as those just hoping to make a 25-man roster. No one – players, writers or fans – knows for certain who used or who was clean. And there is a very good chance someone who used already has been enshrined in the Hall.

So the decision was to stop holding these two responsible for the "steroid era" – because lesser players suspected of using already probably are in – and start voting for them.

As for Walker, I’m sorry to say that I just couldn’t get to "yes."

He was an All-Star in just five of his 17 seasons. His very best years came while he played home games at the Rockies’ Coors Field and could take advantage of the thin Denver air. He hit .334/.426/.618 as a Rockie, .282/.357/.483 as an Expo and .286/.387/.520 as a Cardinal. And though he won three batting titles – in 1998, 1999 and 2001 – his home/road splits were staggering; he batted .418, .461 and .406 in games at Coors Field during those three seasons while hitting .302, .286 and .293 on the road, respectively.

My ballot this season has four players on it. They are as follows:

Derek Jeter: This one required little contemplation and I would not be surprised if he is elected unanimously. The Yankees’ shortstop is sixth all-time in hits with 3,465 and played a central role in winning five World Series championships. You could make a feature-length film of his many and various clutch plays on offense as well as defense.

Barry Bonds: He won seven MVP awards, was a 14-time All-Star and hit more home runs than any player in history – even though we wince as we say it – and, for the reasons explained earlier, belongs.

Roger Clemens: The righthander won seven Cy Young awards and an MVP and his 354 wins put him in the top 10 all-time. Clemens is in the discussion for the best starting pitcher of his era with Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. The other three already have been enshrined.

Curt Schilling: One might disagree with his political bent and the way he chooses to communicate it, but that has no place in discussing his Baseball Hall of Fame candidacy. He was one of the best pitchers of his time and one of the elite postseason starters in baseball history. He was 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 19 playoff starts and his clubs were 5-0 in the five elimination games he started. Schilling may have finished second for a Cy Young three times, but was 4-1 in four World Series and earned three rings.

The re-examination of Walker is over, but as baseball evolves, I could imagine taking another look at Billy Wagner. Using the metrics by which relievers are now measured – and the pitchers of this era will be compared with those from previous eras when they come up on a Hall of Fame ballot – the lefthander’s candidacy maybe needs to be assessed again.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.