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sports Diahuebs 27 Januari 2022

Beltrán brings his own baggage to next year’s Hall ballot

(AP) - With Barry Bonds, years, including social media the vote this time around. He
Roger Clemens and Curt posts about Muslim extrem- was in his fifth year under
Schilling off the ballot, ists, transgender people and consideration and improved
next year’s Hall of Fame journalists. He and Sammy from 52.9%.
vote figures to be a bit less Sosa also fell short in their
contentious. 10th year in the voting an- Ryan Thibodaux, who runs
nounced Tuesday. David Or- an online Hall of Fame bal-
Then again, the top newcom- tiz was the only player elect- lot tracker, said sometimes
er arrives with his own recent ed. if a player’s support surges
baggage. Forget about ste- among voters who release
roids for a minute, it’s time Needless to say, next year’s their ballots publicly, it takes
to talk about sign stealing. ballot will look a lot different. a little longer for his support
to grow among voters who
Carlos Beltrán is eligible for The newbie keep their choices private.
the Hall of Fame in 2023, and Beltrán stands out on next
although the sweet-swinging year’s eligibility list: A nine- “You saw it with (Tim)
outfielder had a distinguished time All-Star, his 20-year Raines and you saw it with
career at the plate and in the career included 435 home Edgar (Martinez) and you cord holder with 62 saves in
field, he was implicated in runs, 312 stolen bases and saw it with Larry Walker. 2008. “Nothing got cleared off the
the Houston Astros’ sign- some impressive postseason When those guys made their ballot at all, so there was just
stealing scandal. It cost him a numbers. Beltrán finally won big jump, they still didn’t Other newcomers not a lot of openings for the
managing job with the New a World Series in his final make a big jump on the pri- Aside from Beltrán and Ro- sort of ‘big Hall’ voters,”
York Mets. season — with Houston in vate ballots,” Thibodaux said. dríguez, it’s hard to see any Thibodaux said. “Obviously,
2017. “But that did happen the next other newly eligible play- that will be kind of the most
It’s unclear whether voters year. But the only caveat with ers getting much support, interesting thing next year.
will treat Beltrán as harshly When that team was later in- that is that the private-ballot although Matt Cain, Jayson The ballot is kind of going to
as they have Bonds, Clem- vestigated, MLB said Beltrán jump with all of those guys Werth and Mike Napoli had be wide open with just Bel-
ens and various other stars was among those involved was always their 10th year their share of memorable trán coming on as kind of the
whose accomplishments in the illicit use of electron- on the ballot. So with Rolen, moments during their ca- main newcomer.”
have been called into ques- ics to steal signs. The Mets, he’s got five more years after reers.
tion by allegations of perfor- who had hired him to be this year. There’s no real im- Indeed, with Ortiz voted in
mance-enhancing drug use. their manager, parted ways perative, time-wise.” Open spots and Bonds, Clemens, Schil-
All of Bonds’ home runs and with him before he was even Voters are allowed to choose ling and Sosa out of eligibili-
Clemens’ Cy Young Awards in charge a single game, al- Relievers a maximum of 10 players ty, voters who used all 10 slots
weren’t enough for either to though A.J. Hinch and Alex It was a mixed bag for some of for induction, and this year, this year could have some
reach the 75% threshold for Cora — two other manag- the game’s top relievers this 33.8% of the electorate used openings they’ll want to fill.
induction to the Hall in vot- ers who were cut loose amid year. Billy Wagner improved all 10 slots. That was up from Don’t assume someone like
ing by the Baseball Writers’ the fallout from that scandal from 46.4% to 51%, but Joe 14.5% the previous year. Rolen will benefit that much,
Association of America, and — are now back in charge in Nathan (4.3%) and Jonathan however. Of the 92 ballots on
they were both rejected in big-league dugouts. Papelbon (1.3%) fell off the That wasn’t a huge surprise, Thibodaux’s tracker that had
their 10th and final year on ballot on their first try. given that nobody was voted all 10 spots accounted for,
the ballot. Rolen inching closer in by the BBWAA last year, only six of them omitted Ro-
Scott Rolen is the top return- Next year, Francisco Rodrí- and none of the players were len, so he may not have a lot
Schilling turned off voters ing player on next year’s bal- guez is eligible for induction. in their 10th year of eligibility of room to improve among
with his behavior in recent lot after receiving 63.2% of He is the single-season re- either. that group of voters.

Medvedev saves match point, moves into Australian Open semis

(AP) — He lost the first two sets, was low Djokovic during his on-court TV interview
on confidence and was one point from a and in a later news conference. He wasn’t
quarterfinal exit at the Australian Open, joking.
so Daniil Medvedev asked himself the
question: What would Novak do? “I was not playing my best, and Felix ... was
all over me,” Medvedev said. “I didn’t know
Fair question. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic what to do so I (asked) myself, ‘What would
is a nine-time Australian Open champion Novak do?’
who finished one win short of a calendar-
year Grand Slam in 2021. “And I just thought, OK, I’m going to make
him work. If he wants to win it, he has to ...
Modelling himself after the 20-time Grand fight to the last point.”
Slam champion, Medvedev told himself late
Wednesday to make Felix Auger-Aliassime Medvedev will have to recover quickly to
fight for every point. play Friday against French Open runner-up
Stefanos Tsitsipas in a rematch of last year’s
More than one hour after saving a match semifinals at Melbourne Park. Medvedev
point on his serve in the fourth set, the U.S. won at the same stage last year but lost in the
Open champion finished off a 6-7 (4), 3-6, final to Djokovic, who wasn’t allowed to de-
7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-4 comeback victory almost a fend the title this month because he failed to
half-hour after midnight. meet Australia’s strict COVID-19 vaccina-
tion rules.
“He was playing insane, like better than
I have ever seen him play. It was unreal,” Tsitsipas had a much easier path to the semi-
Medvedev said. “So third set I had zero con- finals, beating No. 11 Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-4,
fidence in myself and in the outcome of the 6-2 earlier on Day 10.
match.”
Both men’s quarterfinals had delays mid-
Medvedev mentioned his thoughts about match because of rain.