It is that time of year again to spread goodwill towards men with Christmas greetings and my Baseball Writers’ Association of America 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. Candidates who receive 75 percent or more of ballots cast will earn election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the Cooperstown Class of 2026.

I am blessed to be able to vote for the Hall of Fame after putting in the work of covering baseball for … a lifetime. A lot of games. A lot of clubhouses. A lot of planes, a lot of hotels, a lot of interviews — a lot of words written. It is an honor and a privilege, and my selections are usually pretty well received by the readers; like last year on the 2025 ballot when I chose 10 players that I thought were Hall worthy, including three selections that were voted into the Hall by the writers: Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

There were 394 ballots cast last year and 296 were needed for election. Ichiro got 393 votes, Sabathia received 342 votes, and Wagner got 325 votes. Congratulations to all three once again on their Hall of Fame careers.

I am old enough – and have been for quite some time, and getting older and wiser every year – where I have seen these players on the ballot play their entire professional careers, and even one player I put on my ballot this year I have seen play since Little League. More on that later as I go through my selections.

The Hall of Fame currently does not have all-time hits leader Pete Rose in the Hall. Rose owns 4,256 hits. Same goes for the all-time home run leader in Barry Bonds with 762 career home runs, and a pitcher who has won seven Cy Young Awards in Roger Clemens.

I voted for Bonds and Clemens when they were on the writers’ ballot, but they did not get enough votes and the recent votes of the 16-person Contemporary Baseball Era Committee also kept Bonds and Clemens out of the Hall; after their poor showing this time around Bonds and Clemens cannot appear on the era ballot again until at least 2031.

The Steroid Era continues to cast a large, large shadow.

Jeff Kent was elected by the committee, and he is baseball’s all-time home run leader for second basemen. Kent, Bonds’ former teammate in San Francisco, hit 351 of his 377 home runs as a second baseman, so there is that. Welcome, Jeff Kent.

This is why I stand where I stand on PED players. As I have said repeatedly: once the commissioner of baseball Bud Selig and various managers who were rewarded by the exploits of their PED players with those managers and Selig being elected to the Hall of Fame, I got off the Steroid Wall that many writers continue to stand on to this day. That is fine, it is a vote and everyone I know who votes takes the job seriously.

But as for me, I will leave that wall to Colonel Jessup, played brilliantly by Jack Nicholson in the movie A Few Good Men: “You want me on that wall – you need me on that wall.’’

Face it, PED players are already in the Hall — and who really knows how many players in that era were ahead of the testing, pitchers as well as hitters. So, as with Bonds and Clemens I am keeping it all on the field. It is that simple. I had my votes; those players did not receive enough votes during their time on the BBWAA ballot so that is the way it goes.

The HOF ballot moves on and so do I.

As for Pete Rose, I never got the opportunity to vote for him – no writers did – because of the 1991 Pete Rose Rule, but if I had the chance to vote for the all-time hits leader, Charlie Hustle would get my vote as well; especially in this era where MLB is in bed every single game, every inning, every pitch with all the gambling houses.

Same goes for Shoeless Joe Jackson, I’d vote for him if I could. Shoeless Joe has the third highest batting average in MLB history at .356, behind only Ty Cobb (.366) and Rogers Hornsby (.358). Cobb was part of the first HOF class, way back in 1936. Hornsby was inducted in 1942. Yes, as another Hornsby sang many decades later, that’s just the way it is, maybe Pete Rose, who died on September 30, 2024, will someday have his day in the HOF sun.

I’m keeping it simple, MLB’s all-time hits leader, Rose, needs to be in the Hall of Fame, same goes for MLB’s all-time home run leader Bonds, and a seven-time Cy Young winner in the Rocket. I also believe fans of those players deserve to see those stars in the Hall. It is a museum. Put all the information on their plaques, good and bad.

If baseball could not guard the wall, I am not about to — as you can see again by my 2026 Hall of Fame ballot, so here are my eight selections in alphabetical order. You can vote as many as ten players for the Hall, but I did not go there this year — and as I always say every year: this is my ballot, not yours.

Deal with it. The Great Eight.