Former Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame it was announced on Wednesday by officials in Cooperstown, New York.
Ortiz on the ballot for the first time is the only player elected this season, garnering 77.9% of the vote by the baseball writers. A 75% threshold is needed to be voted in. ‘Big Papi’, as he was known, hit .286 with 541 homeruns and 1,768 RBI primarily as a designated hitter over his 20 year career with his last season coming with Boston in 2016. 88% of his plate appearances were as a DH, the most ever by a player in the Hall. He passed Edgar Martinez who had 71.7% of his at bats as a DH. He also joins HOFers Frank Thomas and Harold Baines as the only others that batted over half the time from the DH spot. Ortiz is only the fourth Dominican born player in the Hall (Pedro Martinez, Juan Marichel, Vladimir Guerrero). Ortiz will be most remembered for three of his game ending 23 hits with the Red Sox coming in the 2004 postseason including the American League Championship Series against the NY Yankees, where Boston came back from an 0-3 series deficit to win the pennant and win the World Series over St. Louis to end an 86 year championship drought.
Among players that were up for voting for the first time, Alex Rodriguez and Jimmy Rollins got the most support. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Curt Schilling, and Sammy Sosa didn’t make it once again in their 10th and final time on the traditional ballot. They will be considered by the veteran Today’s Game era committee in December. That committee looks at players from 1988-2016 as possible entrants to the HOF who are no longer on the ballot. Ortiz will be inducted in a ceremony at Cooperstown on July 24.
