Baseball writers balked at naming any new players to the sport's Hall of Fame on Wednesday, withnone of the 37 eligible players drawing enough votes for a ticket to Cooperstown.
Dale Murphy, a Utah resident and a member of the LDS Church, was on the list for his 15th and final year. He received 18.6 percent of the vote, far short of the 75 percent needed to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Murphy was a top outfielder in the 1980's when he picked up five Gold Gloves and two MVP awards. He played for the Atlanta Braves starting 1976 and finished his 18-year career with Philadelphia and Colorado.
The 2013 ballot also marked the first year of eligibility for several players who have been named in the probes of performance-enhancing drug use in the Major Leagues, including all-time home-run champ Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens. It's only the eighth time that no player received the 75% support needed to enter the Hall of Fame, and several of the voters said the results were a reflection of the sport's "steroid era."
The top candidate was longtime Houston Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who racked up more than 3,000 hits in a two-decade career. Biggio received only 68% of the vote, but fell 39 votes short of election, Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson announced.
Contributing source: Matt Smith, CNN
