Bonds, Clemens see marginal gains in 6th turn on ballot

Not only are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens not getting into Cooperstown in 2018, but they're not that much closer to baseball immortality either.

Both Bonds and Clemens - two of the greatest players in history, but whose late-career runs generated controversy over their alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs - continued their slow ascents up the ballot in their sixth try at induction. Neither player, however, could cross the 60 percent threshold: Bonds garnered 56.4 percent of the vote, while Clemens received 57.3 percent.

For Bonds, that marks a 2.6 percent increase on his 2017 total; Clemens saw his vote rise by 3.2 percent. That marks the smallest increase for both players since the 2015 ballot, and a break from their dramatic rises over the past two years. Both had made great strides for induction in both 2016 and '17 when their vote totals jumped by over 20 percent in the last two elections combined.

Both Bonds and Clemens have four years of eligibility remaining on the writers' ballots.

Bonds and Clemens were the only prominent players with PED ties who gained votes on the 2018 ballot. Former Boston Red Sox star Manny Ramirez - who was twice suspended for positive drug tests during his career - along with Chicago Cubs great Sammy Sosa and 500-homer man Gary Sheffield all lost support, with Sheffield's 2.2 percent drop tied with Jeff Kent for the biggest fall among all returning players on the 2018 ballot.

Seventy-five percent of the vote is needed for induction.