Yankees News: Yankee long time adversary “Big Papi” elected to the MLB Hall of Fame

The New York Yankees had no players on the 2022 ballot elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The only player voted upon to be inducted this year was the famed Red Sox star, David Ortiz, otherwise known as “Big Papi.” The Yankees had several on the ballot, but none achieved the necessary 75% of the vote required for induction. Here are the results of the Baseball Writers Association vote:

David Ortiz: 307 votes, 77.9%

Barry Bonds: 260 votes, 66% (final year on ballot)

Roger Clemens: 257 votes, 65.2% (final year on ballot)

Scott Rolen: 249 votes, 63.2%

Curt Schilling: 231 votes, 58.6% (final year on ballot)

Todd Helton: 205 votes, 52.0%

Billy Wagner: 201 votes, 51.0%

Andruw Jones: 163 votes, 41.1%

Gary Sheffield: 160 votes, 40.6%

Alex Rodriguez: 135 votes, 34.3%

Jeff Kent: 129 votes, 32.7%

Manny Ramirez: 114 votes, 28.9%

Omar Vizquel: 94 votes, 23.9%

Sammy Sosa: 73 votes, 18.5% (final year on ballot)

Andy Pettitte: 42 votes, 10.7%

Jimmy Rollins: 37 votes, 9.4%

Bobby Abreu: 34 votes, 8.6%

Mark Buehrle: 23 votes, 5.8%

Torii Hunter: 21 votes, 5.3%

Players that received less than 5% of the vote were automatically dropped from the list for future voting. There were no Yankees players that fell within that category. Many of the above players will become eligible again under the Golden Days and Early Baseball Era committees in the years ahead. Back in December, that vote was held, and Yankee pitcher Jim Kaat was inducted along with five other players from other teams, making a total of seven players to be honored during the ceremony in Cooperstown, New York on July 24, 2022.

For many seasons, David Ortiz, the long-time designated hitter for the Red Sox, was a Yankee pain in the butt for the Yankees. After a successful six-year stint with the Minnesota Twins, he served on the Red Sox for 14 years. He retired after the 2016 season with a .290 batting average, a .956 OPS, and 483 home runs for the Red Sox. This was the first year of eligibility for his induction, and he succeeded with 77.9 of the vote. During his time with the Red Sox, he was a Yankee killer with his home runs. He helped the Sox to three World Series while being a ten-time All-Star and an eight-time MVP nominee as well as a seven-time Silver Slugger.

David Ortiz came into his own with the Red Sox and turned into one of the greatest designated hitters and most clutch postseason performers in major league history after being released by the Twins. He was elected to the Class of 2022 on Tuesday. Ortiz received votes from 307 of the 394 voting members of the Baseball Writers of America. Meanwhile, The Yankees, Roger Clemens, and the Giants, Barry Bonds, along with Sammy Sosa and Curt Shilling, failed the vote in their final year of eligibility.

“I’m always going to thank the Minnesota Twins because the one thing I learned in that organization was that opportunity is not out there every day,” Ortiz said coyly about his six years with the Twins, only two of which found him in the lineup for more than 100 games. “Once you get it, hold on to it because once you let go, it’ll probably never come back to you.”

As I said earlier, Roger Clements failed in his last year of eligibility. He, along with the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, has been unable to reach Hall of Fame status as at least 25% of voters have kept them from receiving the votes needed due to their performance-enhancing drug usage. Another Yankee, Andy Pettitte, also tainted by his short-term drug usage, only received less than 11% of the vote. Other ex-Yankees on the list, Andruw Jones, received 41.1% of the vote, and Gary Sheffield received 40.6%.