The roads to the halls of fame are paved with scrutiny

It took a special committee for Bears' four-time All-NFC tackle Jim Covert to be named to the National Football Hall of Fame.

Chris Webber wasn't inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame until 13 years after his last game.

But the wait for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame continues for former Blackhawks ironman Steve Larmer.

So don't close the door on the candidacies of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, although their induction remains cloudy.

Induction into each of the Big Four sports shrines has its own set of rules, processes and varying degrees of scrutiny and criticism.

Those rules, along with the number of participants in each sport, make it impossible to have some conformity.

The most obvious contrast is the varying degrees of transparency, which fueled outrage on social media once Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Schilling didn't receive the required 75% of the vote for the 10th consecutive season, thus knocking them off the ballot selected by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

The more transparency, the more public criticism.

That's what BBWAA voting members have faced since publicizing their ballots. Some publications have taken away the right of their eligible voters to cast ballots, and other decline to publicize their ballots.

Full disclosure: I've been a member of the BBWAA since 1992 and a HOF voter for 21 years. Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent and Billy Wagner were on my recent ballot, and I've never voted for Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Schilling, with the latter candidate's credentials perceived as very good but not HOF worthy in my estimation.

As for Bonds, Clemens and Sosa, it's my belief the evidence of performance-enhancing drugs was too obvious and they impacted games by illegal means.

Football and hockey disclose the members of their selection committee - with football's committee comprised of 32 media members and 17 at-large selectors who are either media members, executives or contributors to the game.

Hockey's 18-person committee is more diverse, with a mix of former players, coaches, referees, linesmen, executives and media members.

But the individual votes of football and hockey committee members aren't made public. And if fans believe the 75% minimum for induction to the baseball HOF is too high, consider that football requires an 80% majority for induction, and that occurs after a virtual yearlong process in which candidates are pared down from about 120 to 25 to 15 before the selection committee deliberates and votes on the inductees the day before the Super Bowl.

Most of football's criticism is regional. Jacksonville fans hope seven-time All-Pro tackle Tony Boselli is elected next month in his sixth consecutive season as an HOF finalist.

Baseball's ballot is simple. Players with at least 10 years of service automatically qualify, the voting is limited to BBWAA members with the same years of service.

Despite the outrage over Bonds and Clemens, don't expect Hall officials to change the policy soon.

There are no limits on the number of annual inductees to the baseball HOF, while football often ranges between four and eight.

Basketball operates the most secretive and comprehensive process, leaving it open to questioning despite the bona fide legitimacy of its inductees.

Candidates need seven of nine votes from a screening committee to advance to the honors committee - unless the board of trustees determine a candidate has damaged the integrity of basketball.

The 24-member honors committee, comprised of HOF members, executives, administrators and media members, decide on the final ballot with a 75% requirement for induction. The names of the committee members or candidates aren't disclosed.

The elections of Covert, along with Cubs reliever Lee Smith and White Sox slugger Harold Baines, prove that former players can be inducted with the help of special committees.

Covert, who was induced 29 years after his final season, was selected by a 25-member Blue Ribbon panel comprised of media members, HOF coaches, executives and historians - a format similar to baseball's 16-member committees that decide on eligible players bypassed by the BBWAA.

Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Schilling are eligible on the 10-person Today's Game ballot. The election is scheduled for December, but there's the possibility that not all four former players will be on the ballot, which will include eligible managers, executives and umpires.

And more scrutiny.

@MDGonzales