Hall Of Fame

Bowling Wiseman elected to PBA Hall of Fame Danny Wiseman of Baltimore, a 12-time PBA Tour winner, was elected to the PBA Hall of Fame along with Doug Kent , the Professional Bowlers Association announced Friday. They will be inducted during the Hall of Fame dinner March 30 in Indianapolis. Wiseman, 45, joined the tour in 1987 and has earned just over $1.55 million. Wiseman, who attended Dundalk, won his first title at the 1990 Fair Lanes Open in Baltimore. Perhaps his most famous win came in 2004, when he took the USBC Miller High Life Masters at Miller Park in Milwaukee - the first time a bowling championship had been conducted inside a major league baseball stadium.

Earl Weaver's last great season as a manager, 1982, coincided with my first as a young baseball fan, growing up in Baltimore. So in a sense, he has always been the manager - the Platonic ideal of the species - for me. What I didn't know until later was that this fierce little man held a similar place of honor for many fans who embraced the sabermetric movement, the search for data-driven answers to baseball's great questions. You might not guess this if you picture Weaver only as the peppery character who roared from the dugout to kick dirt on the shoes of umpires.

I was overjoyed to learn that no one was nominated for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year ("Voters shut out players," Jan. 10). A few nominees, including Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, were shunned in their first year of eligibility. I have been patiently awaiting this: We are witnessing the backlash of negativism toward former ball players who allegedly abused steroids. The really lamentable thing is that these men would have likely traipsed into the Hall without the assistance, if you will, of steroid use. Those players who used or abused steroids put themselves above the sport, and that is why I am happy to see these men suffer the consequences and futility of not gaining entry at Cooperstown.

Art Modell, the owner who brought the Ravens to Baltimore, and Jonathan Ogden, the team's first-ever draft pick, were among 15 modern-era finalists announced Friday for the 2013 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The announcement, which came four months after Modell's death at age 87, was a significant milestone for the late owner's Hall of Fame candidacy, though the final verdict won't be announced until the day before the Super Bowl. Modell was an NFL owner for 43 years and played a major role in helping the league become a television superpower.

When it was announced that no candidate had received the 75 percent inclusion on ballots needed to be inducted into this year's Baseball Hall of Fame class , I can't say I was surprised. I honestly thought Houston's Craig Biggio might get in - he led all candidates with 68.2 percent of the vote - but wasn't shocked that he fell short. This was an exceptionally difficult year for voting, and there was a whole lot of sentiment toward making a statement. The Baseball Writers' Association of America surely did that.

I had a chance to talk to former Oriole Rafael Palmeiro about Wednesday's Hall of Fame announcement that the Baseball Writers' Association of America did not vote in anyone for the 2013 induction class . That includes Palmeiro, who was on his third year of the ballot and is one of just four players in the game's history to have at least 500 homers and 3,000 hits. He's also the only one on this year's ballot to have tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. In 2005, months after he told a congressional committee that he had never taken steroids, a drug test found stanozolol in his system and Major League Baseball suspended him for 10 days.

The voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America pitched a shutout in this year's Hall of Fame election and delivered a not-so-surprising repudiation of baseball's tawdry steroid era. Maybe that was the right message to send to a sport that was awash in illegal performance-enhancing drugs during the 1990s and early 2000s, but it also came with a few ounces of injustice for those borderline candidates who were not implicated in...

The electorate of the Baseball Writers' Association of America sent a clear message to tainted superstars Wednesday: If you were suspected of taking performance enhancing drugs, you don't belong in the Hall of Fame. At least not in 2013. No players were voted in by the writers this year - the first time that has happened since 1996 and the eighth time in the Hall's history. Outfielder Barry Bonds, the sport's all-time home run leader and a seven-time MVP, and right-hander Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, both failed to get close to the 75 percent vote threshold needed to get elected.

One of the perks of covering the Orioles is that we have easy access to Jim Palmer, a Hall of Fame pitcher who, unlike some other great players, has no problem speaking his mind. I talked to Palmer on Wednesday after he deplaned in Southern California - he will be presented with the Professional Baseball Scouts' Foundation's lifetime achievement award on Saturday in Los Angeles - about the Baseball Writers' of America Association failing to induct anyone into this year's Hall of Fame class, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

ESPN's PR staff sent out snippets of their various reporters and commentators discussing Wednesday's Hall of Fame vote. More than anything, I believe it shows just how varied the thought processes are of voters and Hall of Fame (and potential) Hall of Fame members. Curt Schilling (Hall of Fame eligible, Baseball Tonight) on receiving 38.8 percent of the vote “I'm elated. I haven't gotten anybody out in six years. It's incredibly humbling and flattering and I'm excited just to be in the conversation.” Barry Larkin (Hall of Famer, Baseball Tonight)