Boston Red Sox Hero David Ortiz Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds and former Red Sox ace Roger Clemens, two superstars dogged by rumors of using performance-enhancing drugs, missed the election in their final year of eligibility.

Ortiz, a 10-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion, will be inducted on July 24 at the Hall in Cooperstown, New York. In his first year of eligibility, Ortiz received 77.9% of the vote cast, just over the 75% needed for the election.

Ortiz was also the subject of steroid speculation after he reportedly tested positive in anonymous survey tests in 2003. MLB’s official testing program went into effect the following year, and Ortiz never failed.

Bonds and Clemens were associated with the use of performance-enhancing drugs through the 2007 Mitchell Report of George Mitchell turned senator-turned baseball researcher. But neither player ever passed an MLB test for steroids, and Bonds only admitted to using substances he said were an arthritis balm and flaxseed oil.

Bonds got 66% of the vote and Clemens got 65.2%.

Bonds and Clemens were not the only controversial former players on the ballot. Alex Rodriguez, who hit 696 home runs in his 22-season career, qualified first, and Sammy Sosa, who hit 609 home runs, was in his final year of being eligible for the writers’ vote.

Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, before sanctions were imposed, and admitted to using “a banned substance” after the results were leaked in 2009.

Two years later, he became involved in researching the Biogenesis clinic that provided players with supplements such as human growth hormone and testosterone. Rodriguez missed the 2014 season as he was banned for several years for using PEDs. He received only 34.3% of the votes cast.

If the vote had been just about statistics, Bonds, Clemens and Rodriguez would have been shoo-ins.

Bonds, who played left field for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants during his 22-year career, is the all-time Major League Baseball leader with 762 homeruns in his career. He hit a record of 73 in one season.

He was named National League MVP seven times, a record including four seasons in a row, and won eight Gold Glove awards for his defense.

Clemens, a dominant starting pitcher, recorded 354 wins and 4,672 strikeouts in his 24-year career with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros. Clemens is third on the MLB all-time strikeout list and ninth on the all-time win list. He was on two Yankees World Series-winning teams.

Rodriguez finished fourth all-time in homeruns and RBI’s, won three MVP awards and was one World Series winner. During his career, he played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers and third base for the New York Yankees.

There is still a chance that Bonds, Clemens and others who no longer qualify on the writers’ ballots will be voted into the Hall of Fame. This year, the Today’s Game Era (1988 to present) committee will vote for the class of 2023 in December.

According to the Hall of Fame, that committee is made up of 16 voters who are members of the hall, executives or experienced media members.

In 2019, former pitcher Lee Smith and former rightfielder and designated hitter Harold Baines were elected by the committee.

DailyExpertNews’s Jill Martin, Amir Vera and Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.