David Ortiz was the lone candidate elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The voting process is also verified by public accounting firm Ernst & Young.
Ortiz finished with 77.9 percent of the vote, surpassing the 75 percent threshold and officially becoming a first-ballot Hall of Fame selectee.
Why It Matters
Ortiz, who has a connection to steroids, only creates more controversy behind the politics of the BBWAA. For years, we’ve seen Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa fail to earn enough votes to enter because of their connections to performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds finished with just 66 percent of the vote, and Clemens was right behind him at 65.2 percent. Sosa found himself in the middle with 18.5 percent of the vote, a percentage of votes he’s mostly been receiving for the last decade.
Last month, I made the case one last time for Sosa and his impact on the game not only on the field, but off the field internationally.
He was a transcendent athlete of his time. He helped build steam for the game in the early 2000s after the 1998 home run chase with Mark McGwire. It was prime Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals entertainment in that remarkable summer.
Baseball fans remember Sammy Sosa for putting on shows in the Home Run Derby, and he will go down as one of the greatest power hitters ever. Period.
All in all, it’s incredibly disappointing for the BBWAA to elect Ortiz right away after all the nonsense for players like Sosa, Bonds, and Clemens over the years.
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