Hall of Fame vote fizzles: No one elected for the first time since 1996.

The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in July will feature an empty podium.

No players listed on this year’s ballot got the necessary 75 percent of votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Craig Biggio led the way with 68.2 percent, followed by Jack Morris at 67.7 percent and Jeff Bagwell at 59.6. It’s the first year no players will be enshrined since 1996.

Former Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza was fourth, listed on 57.8 percent of all 569 ballots. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly received 13.2 percent of votes, down from the 17.8 percent he received last year. Support for hitting coach Mark McGwire also dropped, from 19.5 percent in 2012 to 16.9 percent this year.

Two former Dodgers, Kenny Lofton (3.2 percent) and Shawn Green (0.4), did not receive the necessary 5 percent of votes to remain on the ballot. Both were listed on the ballot for the first time.

Some other notable names who fell short: Barry Bonds (36.2 percent), Roger Clemens (37.6), Sammy Sosa (12.5), Fred McGriff (20.7).

The complete results, courtesy of the BBWAA:
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My failed romance with Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Bert Blyleven

Bert Blyleven has been accused of being Dutch and giving up a lot of home runs, but not of taking performance-enhancing drugs. (Associated Press)

Some kids want to be astronauts, firemen, architects, or all of the above.

I wanted to vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

That’s embarrassing to admit, because I should have known better. Architects make good money. They are also able to work with numbers that don’t lie. If Edgar Kaufmann’s house in rural Pennsylvania (better known as Fallingwater) didn’t have enough weight resting in the rest of its structure, its cantilevered deck would collapse into the waterfall below. There’s no ambiguity about those numbers.

I’m not a Hall of Fame voter; I don’t have the required 10 years’ tenure in BBWAA. But I know that my voting colleagues can’t place the same confidence in their numbers. Not when those numbers are statistics compiled by steroid users in a country that considers steroid possession illegal, in a game that didn’t enforce the same rules as its government.

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