Ortiz makes Hall, but final denial of Bonds, Clemens is a shame on voters and on baseball | Opinion

David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Boston Red Sox icon and one of four men in MLB history to hit 500 home runs and win three World Series, was elected Tuesday into the National Baseball Hall of Fame with distinction as a first-ballot honoree.

It wasn’t the biggest news to come out of the announcement. This was:

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens -- arguably the greatest hitter and pitcher to ever play the game -- were denied the Hall in their 10th and final year of eligibility to appear on the ballot.

And Miami-raised Alex Rodriguez was dealt a massive rebuke in his first year of eligibility, despite career numbers that by themselves suggested he might sail into Cooperstown in a landslide vote.

Baseball’s Steroids Era lives on. It is still taking names and meting out punishments.

Lifetime sentences, apparently.

That Bonds and Clemens were turned away for the 10th year in a row defies fair logic and conveys a vindictiveness that does not serve well either MLB, the Hall of Fame or the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, of whom I am one -- proudly, usually, but less so as the 2022 class was announced.

Ortiz, asked if he thought Bonds and Clemens should have been elected, too, said yes, and that he could not believe he was going in without them.

With 75 percent of the vote needed for election, Ortiz made it with 77.9 percent, followed by Bonds at 66.0, Clemens at 65.2, Scott Rolen at 63.2 and Curt Schilling rounding out the top five with 58.6. A-Rod was a distant ninth of 30 on the ballot with 34.3.

Notably, Rodriguez’s debut total was less than Bonds and Clemens drew in their first year of eligibility, indicating, if nothing else, that we BBWAA voters are an unforgiving lot.

I should say for transparency’s sake that my ballot, one of 394 cast and previously made public, included Ortiz, who was elected, and eight men who fell short: Bonds, Clemens, Todd Helton, Manny Ramirez, Schilling, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa and Billy Wagner.

(Sheffield, the only former Marlins player on the ballot, drew 48.7 percent of the vote in his eighth year of eligibility, leaving him only two more tries).

I voted for Bonds and Clemens, who won a record seven MVPs and seven Cy Young awards, respectively, because their career numbers apart from the years of their use of performance-enhancing substances, would have been Hall-worthy.

And because I do not believe their imperfection should amount to a lifetime banishment from Cooperstown when their talent and accomplishment so clearly make them worthy.

I did not vote for A-Rod because I believe first-year election is special, and reserved for those whose eligibility is without question or blemish. That isn’t Rodruguez , who incurred the severest steroids punishment of anybody.

He will get in the Hall someday. Well, I thought that of Bonds and Clemens, too. Now their only hope, and maybe A-Rod’s, is in the hands of post-vote committees able to essentially override BBWAA vote and put people in, perhaps years later.

Bonds and Clemens become only the sixth and seven players to fall short but top 60 percent in their final year of eligibility. The others -- Nellie Fox, Orlando Cepeda, Jim Bunning, Gil Hodges and Jack Morris -- eventually were voted in by the erstwhile Veterans Committee or other panels.

I would not be so sure about Bonds or Clemens or Rodriguez.

Baseball has kept perfect its record of never allowing in Cooperstown a clearly known steroids user, and it easier to imagine the machine keeping with that stance than suddenly feeling, what, forgiveness?

Speaking of baseball and steroids: Big Papi, newest Hall of Famer.

Many out there are recalling Ortiz’s name appearing on a leaked 2003 list of alleged steroids guys. Two things:

1. That list was later determined to include several false-positive test results, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said repeatedly Ortiz should not be linked to steroids.

2. Ortiz made all 10 of his all-star games and had his eight biggest home run seasons from 2004 on, when PED testing formally began. He never failed a test.

Ortiz has earned the first-ballot entry and does not deserve the shadow of “yeah buts.” (Well, maybe except from bitter Yankees fans).

There needs to be a reconciliation that happens, moving forward, from 400 baseball writers telling Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens they weren’t good enough for Cooperstown. It is the only way for baseball to put its Steroids Era in the past.

Let’s come to grips with the idea that Cooperstown reflects the best of baseball but all of baseball. Which included a steroids. Let’s agree that players not otherwise good enough who used PEDs won’t get a second look -- but that there are exceptions to be made.

With our punitive nature we have made the likes of Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa completely disappear, as if they didn’t exist.

Bonds and Clemens, and Rodriguez down the road, their stature was different.

Bonds and Clemens have been shamed and punished for 10 years. A-Rod has just begun to serve his sentence.

Put the word steroids on their bronze plaque for all time, but give them one.

Shout “Got what they deserved!” for the wait all you want, but if the Hall of Fame is to accurately reflect baseball, these three must eventually have a place in the sport’s history, whether the BBWAA or Cooperstown can bring themselves to admit it or not.

Because, sometimes, greatness is so historically large that it outweighs fallibility.