If any Hall of Fame season was set up to seem unusually long—and unusually loud—it’s this one.
In a lockout, MLB’s only source of winter news has been Cooperstown. It’s the last year for the hotly disputed candidacies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, and it’s the first one for names like Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz. Add those factors to a voting process that is already much scrutinized and increasingly sour—and, voilà, you have the experience of the last six weeks. The discourse started burning on Nov. 27, with the first publicly announced ballot of the winter, and new ones have been shared at an average rate of three per day to keep fueling the fire.