Willie McCovey Says Joe Morgan's Letter to HOF Voters Was Shot at Barry Bonds

Baseball Hall of Famer Willie McCovey believes a letter sent by Joe Morgan to Hall of Fame voters last month was specifically about Barry Bonds.

Speaking to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle about Bonds' Hall of Fame case, McCovey cited Morgan's letter as one reason the seven-time National League MVP will struggle to get into Cooperstown.

"That letter Morgan wrote sure is not going to help Barry," McCovey said. "But I'm glad to hear a lot of the writers say the letter is not going to influence their vote because I know a lot of it is aimed at him. I wasn't too happy about it."

McCovey added that it's "naive" to think the letter Morgan circulated to the Baseball Writers' Association of America wasn't aimed at Bonds.

Morgan wrote that "steroid users don't belong" in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He didn't mention any players by name but instead lumped everyone who failed a performance-enhancing drugs test or is believed to have failed one together.

"Players who failed drug tests, admitted using steroids, or were identified as users in Major League Baseball's investigation into steroid abuse, known as the Mitchell Report, should not get in," he wrote. "Those are the three criteria that many of the players and I think are right."

Bonds has slowly been gaining momentum to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame within the 10-year eligibility window. He was named on 36.2 percent of ballots in 2013, his first year on the ballot, and jumped to 44.3 last year and 53.8 this year.

Bonds holds MLB records with 762 home runs and 2,558 walks.