Peter Gammons, the pioneering baseball journalist, television commentator and Hall of Fame honoree, recently wrote about a conversation he had with Barry Bonds last spring:
“You know I am a Hall of Famer,” Bonds told Gammons.
“He didn’t say it with any hint of anger, no staccato, just a matter-of-fact sentence about his ability and his career,” Gammons wrote.
Gammons had not voted for Bonds the first four times that baseball’s all-time home run leader appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot. This time, Gammons did. And he isn’t alone.
While Bonds isn’t expected to reach the 75 percent threshold required for induction when the Hall of Fame announces the final results on Wednesday, the sizable number of publicly revealed ballots show an accelerating trend of acceptance among voters.