The first year Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot, I voted "not now."
OK, technically I just didn't vote for them, but as I explained then in a column for CBSSports.com, it was more of a "not now" vote than a "not ever" vote.
"They may never get in," I wrote, "but my guess is eventually they will."
Eventually is coming.
It likely won't happen this year based on early voting numbers tracked so carefully by Ryan Thibodaux. But Bonds' and Clemens' numbers went up last year after the Hall of Fame made changes in the electorate, and Thibodaux's tracking numbers suggest they'll rise even more significantly this time around.
Some votes switched after a Hall of Fame committee decided to enshrine Bud Selig, the commissioner who oversaw baseball's steroid era. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports talked to some of those voters and explained why they switched.
The Selig decision didn't affect my vote. I've voted for Bonds and Clemens since 2014 for reasons I explained then on Facebook.
Three years later, I feel the same way. And just as I did in 2014, I used the maximum 10 spots on this year's ballot.
Here they are in alphabetical order (as they're listed on the ballot), with the reasons why each one belongs.
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