David Ortiz was the first player to be announced as immortal in the 2021 vote.
Photo: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
the ex-player David Ortiz became this Tuesday the new immortal of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstownin recognition of his outstanding Major League career.
The player with the most votes on the ballot and the only one announced from MLB was the former designated player and first baseman for the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins, David Ortiz. The exaltation was achieved with 77.9% of the votes in its debut year, totaling in 20 years more than 500 HR (541), 1,768 RBIs and 2,472 hits.
Ortiz was the protagonist in his first season with the Red Sox to help get the first World Series in 89 years that Boston achieved in 2004 and thus break the so-called “Curse of the Bambino”where the Red Sox hadn’t won a World Series since 1919 after selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
The Yankees were precisely the first to suffer from the power of the big daddy when his bat was the key piece for them to return in the American League Championship Series that year after being down by three losses. Ortiz hit a home run that he left New York on the field in game 4 and in the fifth he left them again with a bases loaded hit.
Although his career was just beginning at Fenway Park and a year after winning the World Series, he was recognized with a plaque by the Red Sox owners as “the greatest clutch-hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox”.
The badge they gave him would characterize him for the rest of his career and his hits and home runs were fundamental so that in 2007 and 2013 Boston could also win the Fall Classic.
The fans’ disappointment at the Cooperstown ceremony was Voters’ refusal to include former baseball players Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens on their ballots.
Steroid scandals rocked both Bonds and Clemens in the early 2000s. Although the former is the all-time leading home run hitter (762 HR), he won 7 season MVP awards (a record) and the pitcher got 7 Cy Young Awards and won 354 games, were not considered in his last possible year of induction into the Hall of Fame.
It should be noted that in the case of Bonds never tested positive for steroid use, while Clemens was cleared of all charges and charges. that weighed on him.
Now the pair of legends will have to wait for the next meeting of the Veterans Committee of the Modern Era of Baseball in 2024 and 2025 to find out if they are “worthy” to belong to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The exaltation of Big Papi represents the fourth Dominican who will have his plaque as an immortal in Cooperstown. The other ex-players previously chosen were Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez and Vladimir Guerrero.
Ortiz thus crowns his entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NYin a ceremony that comes two years after the last exaltation in 2020 of Derek Jeter and Larry Walkeras in 2021 the vote of the Baseball Writers Association of North America (BBWAA) showed that no player complied with the required vote (75% of the ballots) for admission.
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Another Latin American in Cooperstown: David Ortiz was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame