Will any new Hall of Famers be elected tonight?

Hall of Fame election day should be an enjoyable event. We should spend our time celebrating the careers of the greatest players baseball has to offer and engaging in spirited but friendly debates about those players who didn't get enough votes to make it to Cooperstown.

Unfortunately, this probably isn't going to be one of those election days. For a number of reasons, this could wind up being the most depressing one of these we've had in a while.

The year-long pandemic, of course, has made everything worse. It postponed last year's induction ceremony and forced Derek Jeter, Larry Walker and others to have to wait until this summer to finally have their moment in the sun.

But pandemic or not, this year's ballot just didn't offer many inspiring storylines. The three top returning vote-getters from last year are Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. It would be tough to lump together three more controversial figures than that. And there's no obvious first-time candidate who figures to have a serious chance at induction.

All of which leaves us facing the real possibility of a rare, but occasionally necessary, outcome: no new inductees.

Schilling looked like a good bet to cross the fabled 75 percent vote threshold after receiving 70 percent support in 2020. That's usually a precursor to an automatic bump the following year. But the three-time World Series champion for the Diamondbacks and Red Sox perhaps ruined his chances by continuing to spew vile messages of hate on social media platforms, turning off voters. He needs to change their minds to get him over the election hump.

It might happen regardless: Schilling was named on 75.3 percent of ballots that had already been publicly released by Monday night, according to Ryan Thibodaux's excellent Hall of Fame Tracker. Typically, players' vote percentages go down once private ballots and post-election public ballots are added, so Schilling could be in trouble. But either way, it's probably going to be close.

Bonds and Clemens' chances, on the other hand, appear nonexistent. The two most notorious faces of performance-enhancing drug use among Hall of Fame candidates have seen their support stuck right around the 60 percent mark for years now. And there's no reason to believe that's going to change this time: Bonds had gained only one new vote from a year ago, according to the tracker. Clemens hadn't gained any new votes.

Maybe voters' views about Bonds and Clemens will finally change in 2022 for their 10th and final shot at election on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot. But it's pretty clear it's not happening in 2021.

It's also pretty clear that none of the 11 players who appeared on the ballot for the first time are going to be immediately elected. The best of the bunch were Tim Hudson, Mark Buehrle and Torii Hunter. Any or all of them could make it to Cooperstown eventually, but none figures to come anywhere close to 75 percent support this year.

Don't take all of this to mean the BBWAA is trying to keep people out of the Hall. Quite the contrary: The writers have elected a record 25 players over the last eight years. And with Álex Rodríguez, David Ortiz and Jimmy Rollins joining the ballot in 2022, we shouldn't be talking about a potential class of none again next year.

As always, I'll reveal my ballot and explain all my decisions after tonight's 6 p.m. announcement. So be sure to check back this evening for my annual column.