"The writers are saying that this was the Steroids Era, like they have done Mark McGwire," Blyleven said after finally making it to the Hall on his 14th try. "They've kind of made their point."

Alomar was picked on 90 percent of the ballots by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The 12-time All-Star won a record 10 Gold Gloves at second base, hit .300 and helped the Toronto Blue Jays win titles in 1992-93.

Blyleven was picked on 79.7 percent -- it takes 75 percent to reach the shrine. The great curveballer won 287 games, threw 60 shutouts and is fifth with 3,701 strikeouts. This was his 14th time on the ballot and his career stats have received a boost in recent years from sabermetricians who have new ways to evaluate baseball numbers.

"It's been 14 years of praying and waiting," Blyleven said in a conference call. "And thank the baseball writers of America for, I'm going to say, finally getting it right."

Palmeiro, McGwire, Bagwell and Gonzalez fared poorly in the election, with BBWAA members apparently reluctant to choose bulky hitters who posted big numbers in the 1990s and 2000s.

"Guys cheated," he said. "They cheated themselves and their teammates. The game of baseball is to be played clean. I think we went through a steroid era and I think it's up to the writers to decide when and who should go in through that era."

A lot of them have already decided.

"I will not vote for any player connected with steroid use, because I believe cheaters shouldn't be rewarded with the sport's highest honor," Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle said in an e-mail.

"We are asked to consider character when casting Hall of Fame votes and I don't believe those who used performance-enhancing substances meet that standard," she said. "They cheated to get ahead, plain and simple, creating an imbalance in the game and a mess for the voters. They can enjoy the big contracts they earned as a result, but they won't get my vote."

Bagwell got 41.7 percent in his first year on the ballot. His career stats are among the best for first basemen since World War II -- .297 batting average, .408 on-base percentage and .540 slugging percentage. He hit 449 home runs, topped 1,500 RBIs and runs and ran the bases hard. He was Rookie of the Year, NL MVP and a Gold Glove winner.

Bagwell never tested positive, there were no public allegations against him and he was adamant that he never used illegal drugs. Still, many voters and fans aren't sure yet how to assess the huge numbers put up by the game's top hitters.

"That stuff's going to happen in this era," Bagwell said on a conference call. "People are going to have suspicion in the era I played in."

"People are going to think what they want to think. If they don't think that anybody was good in this era, then that's fine. Like I said, I'm one of the first ones to come up in that era. I'm OK with it," he said. "There's nothing I can do about it."

Palmeiro was listed on just 64 of a record 581 ballots (11 percent) in his first try despite lofty career numbers -- he is joined by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the lone players with more than 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

But Palmeiro failed a drug test and was suspended by Major League Baseball in 2005. The penalty came a few months after he wagged his finger at members of Congress and told them: "I have never used steroids. Period."

"I am disappointed, obviously I am disappointed, I thought I would get more support," Palmeiro told ESPN The Magazine's Tim Kurkjian. "But I am grateful that I get to stay on the ballot for at least another year. Maybe I'll go up, maybe I'll go down. I thought I was worthy of a better showing than what I got, but I had a black mark against me my last year in baseball. That is hard to overcome. I know there were some voters that said, 'He's a Hall of Famer, but he tested positive. I can't vote for him.' That's the reality of it. And it is something I have to live with."

Palmeiro recently reiterated the anabolic steroid that caused his positive test came in a vitamin vial given to him by teammate Miguel Tejada.