The Baseball Lifer by Charlie Vascellaro
Ortiz tops list of eligible candidates
on 2022 Hall of Fame ballot

With a hopeful return to normalcy and an eye on the 2022 Hall of Fame Induction, there is a possibility for another first ballot inductee and an outside chance for the inclusion of a controversial last chance carry over candidate.

Considering the strength of the returning field of nominees and newly eligible candidates, the prospect also exists that no one will be elected to the Hall for the second year in-a-row.

Now that Edgar Martinez has opened the Hall of Fame’s doorway to designated hitters with his election in 2019, the strongest candidate on the ballot is first timer David Ortiz, arguably the most productive DH in history. Whether he is elected this year, it’s likely Ortiz will eventually gain admittance and be delivering his acceptance speech on the field at the Clark Sports Center in Middlefield sometime in the not-too-distant future.

I spoke with long time Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting member Barry M. Bloom Sr., writer at Sportico, (National Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot Is Tough For Starting Pitchers), who said he would probably not be voting for Ortiz while fellow steroid era suspects like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa have failed to gain admittance and will be appearing on the ballot for the final time.

However, I still think there is a pretty good chance Ortiz will be a first ballot inductee.

While Ortiz has not received as much scrutiny as some of the others and never tested positive for steroids, he was named in 2003 on a list of players suspected of using performance enhancing drugs that were not classified as steroids and were permissible under MLB rules at the time.

Ranked 17th among career leaders in home runs at 541, Ortiz is sandwiched between Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt at 548 and Mickey Mantle with 536. With the exception of suspected and/or confirmed steroid users Barry Bonds (762), Sammy Sosa (609), Mark McGwire (583) Rafael Palmiero (569) and Manny Ramirez (555), the rest of the eight in front or Ortiz, excluding active slugger Albert Pujols, are already in the Hall of Fame.

The eight players following Ortiz on the career home run list including Jimmie Foxx (534), Wille McCovey (521), Frank Thomas, (521), Ted Williams (521), Ernie Banks (512), Eddie Mathews (512), and Mel Ott (511), and are all also enshrined in the Hall.

Ortiz helped deliver the Boston Red Sox to the promised land in 2004 with the team’s first World Series victory in 86 years. He was also a member of Boston’s World Series championship teams in 2007, 2008 and 2013. He led the AL with 56 home runs in 2006 and three times in RBI in 2005, 2006 and the final year of his 20-year career in 2016. His 1,785 RBI rank 23rd all-time.

Joining Ortiz on the 2022 ballot will be a notably more notorious steroid culprit, Alex Rodriguez, one of baseball’s all-time leading sluggers from 1994-2016, who was suspended for the entire 2014 for violating major league baseball’s antidoping rules.

Rodriguez 696 home runs rank 4th on the all-time list. He was a three-time American League MVP (2003, 2005, 2007) and 14-time All-Star and led the AL in home runs five times (2001-2003, 2005, 2007). Based on the BBWAA’s voting history regarding Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, Palmiero and company, it is unlikely that Rodriguez will merit strong consideration.

Leading the list of steroid era suspects in their final year on the ballot, Bonds and Clemens both received more than 60% of the required 75% needed for election finishing second and third on the 2021 ballot behind mercurial and controversial pitcher Curt Shilling who may have blabbed his way out of election after coming as close to being elected in his nine years on the ballot with 71.1%.

Echoing the sentiment of Marvin Miller, former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association and 2020 Modern Era selection and posthumous 2021 inductee, Shilling asked that his name be removed from the ballot in his final year of candidacy:

“I will not participate in the final year of voting. I am requesting to be removed from the ballot. I’ll defer to the veterans committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player,” Schilling wrote in a letter addressed to the Hall of Fame. “I don’t think I’m a Hall of Famer as I’ve often stated but if former players think I am then I’ll accept that with honor.”

The Hall rejected his request, but while Shilling’s name will still appear on the ballot his words have only served to further alienate him from the voting members of the BBWAA.

Bloom for one expressed that if Shilling doesn’t want his vote, he won’t get it.

Of course, the possibility still exists that Ortiz and Shilling, 2004 champs together, may still share the stage with Bonds and Clemens at the 2022 induction.

Of course, we don’t even know who will show up for this year’s induction, let alone what 2022 will bring.

We aren’t doing too well predicting this COVID thing either. So, us baseball lovers will just have to wait and see.