Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, two of the most successful players in baseball history, are among the former stars who were essentially blacklisted from the Hall of Fame because of their reputations as doping cheats. But now it appears that such players might end up enshrined in Cooperstown after all.

In a sudden and surprising shift of sentiment, the baseball writers who vote to decide who should be inducted into the Hall, and who should not, appear to be backing away from their punitive approach to Bonds and Clemens, and perhaps others as well.

Were Bonds and Clemens to actually end up in the Hall, it would be a striking moment for the sport and its millions of fans. No team sport in the United States has as much tradition as baseball does, nor does any other sport have a Hall of Fame that carries nearly as much prestige as the one in Cooperstown.