David Ortiz, slugging DH for the Minnesota Twins and Red Sox who helped lead Boston to three World Series titles in 2004, 2007 and 2013, was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America in the vote revealed Tuesday, with 77.9 percent of the vote.
Ortiz, a 10-time All-Star, batted .286/.380/.552 with 541 home runs in a 19-year MLB career that began at Wrigley Field in September 1997. He hit 17 home runs in 85 postseason games in nine different seasons for Boston.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, in their 10th and final year of BBWAA voting eligibility, fell short of the 75 percent vote needed for induction. Bonds wound up with 66 percent of the vote and Clemens got 65.2 percent of the vote.
Bonds and Clemens are controversial figures in baseball history despite their accomplishments on the field. It can be, and has been, said about both that their numbers rated Hall induction even before they allegedly began taking performance enhancing drugs sometime in the late 1990s.
There were PED rumors about Ortiz, too, but nothing was ever proven and he became a beloved elder statesman of the game in his later years in Boston.
The writers have spoken. It remains to be seen whether either Bonds or Clemens will be voted in by one of the various “veterans committees” that vote on players passed over by the BBWAA as well as other baseball figures not inducted by other means.
Last December, two of those committees cast votes for six men to be inducted in Cooperstown this July. The Early Baseball Era Committee voted in Negro League legends Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil (who also served as a scout and coach for the Cubs), and the Golden Days Era Committee voted in Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso, and Tony Oliva. Kaat and Oliva, both now in their 80s, will be in Cooperstown this summer to accept their plaques.
Here is Ryan Thibodaux’ spreadsheet with all the publicly revealed ballots (plus some anonymous ballots) that were known at the time the induction announcement was made. Former Cubs star Sammy Sosa, also in his final year on the BBWAA ballot, received 18.5 percent of the vote, up from 17 percent a year ago, but still far short of induction.
Here is the full vote from the BBWAA.
The 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place Sunday, July 24 in Cooperstown and it will be televised live on MLB Network at 12:30 p.m. CT. They’ll likely have someone accept on the late Buck O’Neil’s behalf, but seriously, that person shouldn’t have to make a speech — all they need to do is replay this, which if you haven’t watched, you should, and if you have previously seen it, it’s worth another seven minutes of your time: