Nick Geddes
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Red Sox legend David Ortiz was announced Tuesday as the lone member of the 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame class.
Ortiz received 77.9% of votes on the BBWAA ballot, surpassing the 75% needed for election. Ortiz is the 58th player to be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first-year of eligibility.
A 10-time All-Star, Ortiz mashed 541 home runs and posted a dazzling 1.372 World Series OPS during Boston’s three championship runs. His longevity is perhaps most impressive, as he led the MLB in doubles, RBI’s, SLG and OPS during his age-40 season in 2016, the last of his career.
While Ortiz saved the Hall from posting another shutout, after electing zero members in 2021, the storyline going in was centered around Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Both entered their 10th and final year on the ballot, needing an uptick in votes to reach enshrinement.
Time however, ran out on the two legends, as Bonds received 66% of the vote, Clemens garnering 65.2%. In the end, the duo’s longstanding connection to steroids was enough to keep them out. Bonds and his 762 career home runs and seven MVP awards won’t be showcased in Cooperstown. Neither will Clemens and his seven Cy Young awards.
And that’s a shame.
Interestingly enough, Ortiz was linked to steroids, although he’s denied ever using them. That didn’t impact him, nor should it have. But it shouldn’t have impacted Bonds or Clemens either, who were made to play the waiting game for a decade — ultimately to no avail.
While we’ll never see a plaque of the “Rocket”, Clemens said none of that matters to him.
“My family and I put the HOF in the rear view mirror ten years ago,” Clemens wrote, via Twitter. “I didn’t play baseball to get into the HOF. I played to make a generational difference in the lives of my family.”
Alex Rodriguez, who openly admitted to taking steroids and has apologized, was denied entry on his first time on the ballot. A-Rod only mustered up just 34.3% of the vote. Unfortunately for the iconic third baseman who slugged 696 career home runs, it appears he’ll be headed down the same uphill climb as Bonds and Clemens.
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The base ball hall of fame is a damn joke. The most writers who vote are the biggest hypocrites. Vote in Pudge Rodriguez used steroids.
Ortiz tested positive for dope too back in 2003 according to Jeff Pasan, so why does he get a pass and three vastly superior players don’t(Arod also snubbed)?
My opinion is we can’t keep players out just because of PEDs in that era, because they ALL were doing it for all we know. They didn’t test every player every year for 15 years so we don’t know who was doping or not for sure. It was at least a level playing field. I simply judge them among their peers of that era. You know who was best of the era regardless of whether they doped or not. Subjectively choosing who a writer “thinks” doped or not, or who tested once versus who didn’t, is not a reliable criteria. We don’t know. Why do Chipper, Walker, Bagwell, Pudge, Mussina, Piazza, Thome or Rivera get an okay and others not? I guarantee you some of those guys took stuff. Their word is okay but others not? We don’t know who was taking over such a longe span with just a small period of testing. Players like Bonds, Clemens, Arod, Manny, Sosa, Palmeiro, and Mac were all clearly the premier players during that period and should be recognized as such in the HoF. The league and media punishing them while they raked in billions is the essence of hypocrisy.
The baseball HOF is completely irrelevant. It’s really sad. I had the opportunity to get to know a HOFer on a personal level, Mr. Doug Harvey, aka “God”. He was beloved by all that new him, for not only his outstanding umpiring, but also for his honesty and integrity.
None of that matters anymore. David Ortiz cheated. Period.
He may be an amazing person. I felt terrible for him and his family when he was shot, and I’m thankful he was able to recover. But he cheated the sport of baseball, and all those men who did things the right way before him, during his career, and after.
Barry Bonds is one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game. But he cheated. David Ortiz doesn’t belong in the same conversation with Bonds. Not even close. But today he’s a HOFer.
Last year the all star fiasco, now this. Baseball has made it easy to divorce them.
I miss Doug Harvey, and men like him who helped make this game great. Honest men.
You can give me the greenies speech, they did cocaine, whatever, in the 70’s and 80’s. Hard drugs are not PEDS. Those players ruined their lives and long term health in most cases, drastically shortening their careers. See Doc Gooden and Daryl Strawberry.
Now we have to watch known cheaters, Arod, David Ortiz, and Gary Sheffield give us “expert analysis”, and get paid handsomely to do so.
These men knowingly injected, ingested, and used topicals that would make them bigger, stronger, and faster, and did so with consideration only for themselves, not for their teammates, and not for baseball. And now Ortiz is rewarded with the Hall of Fame.
And another cheater, Alex Cora got his old job back. Goodbye MLB. Thanks for the memories.
Pete Rose bet on games he didn’t even play in and he is banned for life. Go figure.
Yeah I remember this dude speaking in the ballpark just before a game after the Boston bomber saying “this is our Fucking town” couldn’t get one line out without the vulgar F bomb in front of grandma mom and the kids real class