Baseball Hall of Fame cuts election eligibility

AP-COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- The Baseball Hall of Fame has reduced the number of years a player can remain eligible to be voted in by the writers to 10 years from 15, giving Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens less time to be considered.

The Hall of Fame announced the changes Saturday. They are effective immediately and will be reflected in 2015 Hall of Fame voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Bonds and Clemens, record-breaking stars whose careers have been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use, have been on the ballot the last two years.

The BBWAA will allow three players -- Don Mattingly, Lee Smith and Alan Trammell -- who have been on the ballot between 10-15 years to complete a 15-year stay.

Nothing like the BBWAA changing rules whenever they want. At least they are giving 3 players a chance for their 15 yr. stay on the ballot. I've said this before, when the steroid era was happening there weren't rules in place to stop it. In fact the commissioner turned his back to it and probably privately thanked them for bringing back interest to the game after the 1994 strike. Saved his job. Then when the hearings on Capitol Hill came about, he was shocked and dismayed that there was anything like that going on. Then tried to push thru drug testing when public opinion shifted in that direction.

So if it wasn't for all the HR's that were hit during this time making baseball sexy, there wouldn't be many fans left. Yeah, that's an exaggeration, but there weren't many fans when they came back.

So for the BBWAA to exclude these stars from the HOF, and make it more difficult for them, congratulations to them because the HOF is all about the sportswriters. That's who everyone shows up to see when they visit Cooperstown.