Some of the greatest players to ever grace a baseball diamond could find the doors of the sport’s Valhalla closed permanently, even as lesser stars gain entry to the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. 

That reality is sinking in as the latest voting results were tabulated over the weekend, and Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Rafael Palmeiro all fell short. The 16 voters — former players, executives, and scribes — were the members of the Contemporary Baseball Era committee. 

Gathering at San Diego, these worthies considered the candidacies of eight modern players who failed to gain admission via the traditional route, a vote by the Baseball Writers of America. The supplemental tribunal will meet triennially. 

The sole player who passed the 75 percent threshold required for admission was Fred “Crime Dog” McGriff, who played for 19 seasons with five clubs. More of a grinder than an incandescent star, he finished seven home runs short of the 500 mark, a traditional plateau of Hall of Fame entry. 

While fans will tip their caps to Mr. McGriff, who starred in a long-running infomercial in the 1990s on ESPN, more notable than his admission is the continued rejection of Messrs. Bonds, Clemens, and Palmeiro. 

The trio didn’t come close. Each failed to garner even four votes, let alone the 12 required. Mr. McGriff swept all 16. Also failing to clear the threshold were Donald “Mr. Baseball” Mattingly, a Yankee whose career was marred by back pain, and Curt Schilling, whose post-playing career has been marked by controversial comments. 

Unlike the Football Hall of Fame at Canton, which instructs its voters to consider only achievements on the gridiron, baseball takes character into account. That policy spiked the candidacy of the steroid stars before the baseball writers.

Adopted in 1945, the so-called character clause mandates that those admitted to the Hall “shall be chosen on the basis of playing ability, sportsmanship, character, their contribution to the teams on which they played and to baseball in general.” 

In January, Messrs. Bonds and Clemens fell short in their final year of general eligibility, which likewise requires a 75 percent threshold. Mr. Bonds received 66 percent support, and Mr. Clemens just a tick less. Mr. Palemeiro fell off the ballot in 2014, after garnering just 4 percent support.

Only 34 percent of baseball writers this year supported the candidacy of another generational player, Alex Rodriguez, in his first appearance on the ballot. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who tattooed the record books by dint of their home run exploits in the late 1990s, have likewise faced exclusion.  

Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz has enjoyed a different fate. In 2009, his name appeared in the New York Times alongside more than 100 players who clocked positive tests during spring training in 2003. That was a pilot program, and the nature of the positive test was not disclosed nor was it repeated.  

Commissioner Robert Manfred has not taken a position on whether steroid users should gain admittance to the Hall. He has said that voters need to “look into their conscience and decide how they evaluate that against the Hall of Fame criteria.”