The Hall of Fame is not a boy scout award

The Hall of Fame is not a boy scout award, it’s a museum. It refers only to your stats on the field and it's very culpable to favoritism.

The Hall of Fame is not a boy scout award, it’s a museum. It’s about your statistics on the field, nothing else.

A lot of it really comes down to favoritism. I understand that steroid users aren’t admirably looked at as Cooperstown residents as to why many of them have ceased to get that elusive call to be welcomed to baseball’s most hallowed ground. Yet a handful of users of gym candy have.

That’s where it gets uneven and one sided. In this case that continues the never-ending Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. David Ortiz was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022.

I really don’t have a problem with Ortiz being in the Hall because he highly likely would have gotten in eventually. I have a problem with the timing. He was on the ballot in his first year in 2022 which was also Alex Rodriguez’s first year on the ballot. Ortiz earned 77.9% and Rodriguez won 34.3%. Big Papi more than doubled A-Rod’s votes.

Now we are all aware that Alex Rodriguez heavily used steroids for the majority of his career. Ortiz’ name didn’t come up as much, but he did fail a drug test. That should be a red flag right there. I also will add that his own paper, The Boston Globe criticized him about that. But no, this guy walks right in on the first year of the ballot. Why is that? It is because David Ortiz is a “likeable” guy. Everyone loves him and Alex Rodriguez is not very well liked. But that should have nothing to do with earning the right to the Hall of Fame.

A-Rod is not a saint we all know that, but their personal resumes are uncomparable. Alex Rodriguez has 696 career home runs which at the time of his retirement was fourth on the all-time list behind Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, and Barry Bonds. David Ortiz has 541. Ortiz only led the league in home runs once with 54 long balls. Rodriguez placed first in the league on 5 occasions, three years in a row in Texas and his highest dinger total was 57. Ortiz did lead the league in RBI’s thrice to Rodriguez’s twice, but Ortiz tallied 148 in his RBI career year with Rodriguez driving in 156 runs in a season. Alex is a member of the illustrious 3,000 hit club and Ortiz is not on that list. There have been 20,532 players in history to play Major League Baseball and only 33 men are in the elite 3,000 club and Alex Rodriguez is one of them. Also, Rodgriguez won 3 American League MVP’s and Ortiz never won 1. He finished as the runner up only one time and lost the MVP in 2005 to the Yankees Thirdbaseman.

Now I am aware that David Ortiz was Mr. Clutch and Alex Rodriguez was not. Aside from his heroics in his wonderful performance during the 2009 postseason A-Rod failed time and time again under pressure in the spotlight. Ortiz brought the Red Sox back on the premises of defeat many times including the historic comeback of the 2004 ALCS where he won MVP honors. He also won the World Series MVP in 2013 and over and over again had ice water in his veins coming through in the biggest spots for the Red Sox in October. That is all great that he came through and was a major contributor to championships but in my opinion team stuff in the Baseball Hall of Fame is not prevalent. It’s a lot more about your personal resume. The team stuff is more predominant in your Hall of Fame case in football, especially for a Quarterback. I’m not knocking Ortiz’s Hall of Fame career, because he is rightfully so a Red Sox icon but what I’m putting emphasis on is that Ortiz earned his Hall of Fame honors the same year that he and a player that is in the top 10 to ever play the game did not when it was both their first year of eligibility. There are at least 62 players that had better careers than Ortiz and if you beg to differ argue with ESPN.com for ranking Big Papi 63^rd on the Top 100 MLB Players of all time list that came out February of 2022.

I’m not saying Alex Rodgriguez is the best person in the world. We are all aware of the off the field drama and dissention amongst his teammates he caused continuously throughout his career. But the only reason why Ortiz received that call from Cooperstown during the winter of 2022 and Rodriguez did not is because of his enticing personality. Everyone likes him because of his infectious smile and the way he allures teammates, reporters, coaches, and fans due to not being dubious in his affable character. But that shouldn’t automatically be your ticket to Cooperstown. I’m not saying that Ortiz’s stats don’t qualify for Cooperstown. They do. The numbers certainly are good enough steroids or no steroids. The issue I have is no lack of hesitation for him getting that elusive call. Walking right into baseball’s most hallowed ground where no one bats an eyelash at it. Keeping Ortiz out of the Hall for the first year or two would of been a statement in itself. No one seems to care that David Ortiz used Performance Enhancing Drugs. What is interesting is that all these years post his retirement Alex Rodriguez is on television everywhere every day and yet everyone still hates him. But if I were a martian and I beamed down to Earth and was told to decipher whose career numbers were better by reading the statistics I’d vote for #13 not #34.

It just comes down to favoritism. A prime example today is how all these retired athletes are in commercials every day promoting gambling, yet Pete Rose was not even allowed to attend a ceremony. And now he’s dead. Pete Rose is another individual with a flawed character but the all-time leader in hits’ lifetime ban was never lifted. That’s the definition of hypocrisy.

In my part 2, I will discuss more about the inconsistency of the character and integrity clause resulting in players being allowed or not being allowed to enter the Hall of Fame. But the Hall of Fame isn’t supposed to be about giving out merit badges to the good boys and putting the problem children in timeout. It’s about their merits on the field that earns them the prestigious plaque.