A year ago, a change of heart among Baseball Hall of Fame voters gave a boost to the drug-tarnished candidacies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, although it did not win them induction, or even get them that close.
Now, with one-third of the ballots for the class of 2018 already made public, Bonds and Clemens do not appear to be picking up any new converts from established voters, which strongly suggests they will fall substantially short of induction this time as well.
However, it also appears that they continue to make strides through the evolution of the Hall of Fame electorate, with newly eligible voters inclined to back their candidacies.