Red Sox slugger Ortiz on track for baseball hall election

BOSTON (AP) — Boston’s Big Papi appears headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame -- no last-minute walk-off needed.

The Red Sox slugger looks to be on track for induction in Cooperstown this summer, riding the strength of his on- and off-field achievements to overcome stigmas that have stalled or derailed the candidacies of some of his predecessors.

Namely, Ortiz appears to have bucked anti-designated hitter sentiment that has been blunted by the inductions of Frank Thomas, Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines. And Ortiz’s lone reported positive for performance-enhancing drugs — on an expected anonymous 2003 survey test lacking the usual due process — seems to be hurting him less than the more substantial evidence against candidates like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez.

Through Friday, Ortiz had been named on 84% of the ballots revealed at the bbhottracker.com website maintained by former Oakland Athletics fan Ryan Thibodaux and his number-crunching minions. A candidate needs 75% for induction; totals traditionally go down when the final numbers are released.

Clemens and Bonds, all-time greats whose accomplishments are tainted by steroid use, were barely above the threshold in their 10th and final appearance on the baseball writers' ballot.

The Hall will announce the results of the BBWAA vote on Tuesday, and anyone elected to the Class of 2022 will join Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva, Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil, who were elected by the Hall’s era committees.

A 10-time All-Star, Ortiz batted .286 with 541 homers and 1,768 RBIs in a career that started with the Twins before they released him to avoid a big payday in arbitration. After arriving in Boston, he finished in the top five of the AL MVP balloting for each the next five seasons; he came in...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Red-Sox-slugger-Ortiz-on-track-for-baseball-hall-16793997.php