Ok - So why him ??

 Why was David Ortiz voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame  on the 1st Ballot. ?? When the likes of Bonds, Clemens , Sosa, Schilling, have not been voted in for the last decade,,  and for many they will now have to see if the Veterans (Today's) Committee will eventually vote them in - and just FYI they can remain eligible for that in perpetuity .......

SO - Why Ortiz .. ? 1st I think you need to ask - Is he a Hall of Famer ??  Definitely .  Is he a First Ballot Hall of Famer ?? again - I think the answer is yes.  Home run totals, RBI totals -  forget a minute that he was a DH not a position player,  so his job was to drive in Runs ,, to HIT.. and he did that with the best of 'em --as they say.....     

Now - if you are a strictly numbers person - and the STAT  W.A.R. has come into play in the recent past,, that is Wins against Replacement. he does not do so well there,,, there are like 200 guys with Better WAR numbers than Ortiz. 

What about the "Roid" issue -  Ortiz tested positive in what was spose to be a Secret Test back in 2003. , but someone got their hands on the list and was able to match names with the Test numbers , and Ortiz, Sheffield among others tested positive. You might have inferred that from the numbers that he had going form the Twins in 2002 to the Red Sox from 2003 on,,,,, he was a mid 200 hitter with 10 -20 home runs per season,  but then with the Sox he became a near 300 hitter with 40 - 50 home runs per season,,,, hummmm  so he actually got better as he got older - that data is similar to other ROID guys like Bonds and Clemens. And Do not tell me that he never failed  a PED test after that - these guys (and their Doctors) are always ahead of the Testing methods,...  Hells Bells - some guys got caught cause they forgot that it was day game instead of a night game, and they took the PED too close to "testing" time... and the Anti-PED did not a a chance to work before they had to "pee in the cup". So this leads to Why did you vote for Ortiz & NOT the Bonds, Clemens, Sosa , Schillling, A-Rod's on the Ballot for me that's not explainable . 

Perhaps the X factor here is Ortiz personality.  he is a very Like-able  guy.  His work on some of the Baseball Pre and post games with Arod, Frank Thomas, has been great. He is a good guy to interview, Liked by the Press, the TV and Radio reporters.  This opposed to Bonds who the press hated and he hated them.  Clemens  was better at that - but guys still disliked him... and disliked A-Rod - the jealously toward  good lookin  rich guys.  and Schilling - forget it - he made some absolutely insane statements AFTER his playing  days about the LGB ext community, Muslims, Nazi;s,, talked openly about his political views as to why he was not more popular casue he was a political spokesman,, and then as his HOF voting percentages continued to increase,,, perhaps leading to him getting to the Required 75% - he goes and calls the People that did not vote for him Jerks and then asks to be removed from the Ballot (not his decision toy do that its the HOF - and they did not).

SO - Ortiz is a HOF'er ,,, a First Rounder - Congrats to him ! he deserves it. 

As far as the others - I think as the Veterans Committee changes in the next years,, and  more players that were of that ROID era are on the Committee - they will vote them in - probably all at once. I do think that as we go thru time - it will seem more and more ridiculous s that they were not voted in by the BBWA...  somewhere in their 10 years of Eligibility.