For the first time in two seasons the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) elected a player into the Hall of Fame, with 77.9 percent of their voting members casting ballots for Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz in his first year of eligibility. You will get no argument from me about whether the voters were right to honor Ortiz as a Hall of Fame caliber player, although I’ll evaluate some of the objections other writers have made in detail below. However, as elated as I am that one of my favorite players is heading to Cooperstown, I am troubled by a process that sees him celebrated as inarguably better players fall off the ballot.
David Ortiz is the only player elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA in the last two years
