Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz Punched His Ticket To Cooperstown

With all due respect to Edgar Martinez, Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz is without question the greatest designated hitter of all time. The fact that he has 500 home runs on his resume means that statistically, Ortiz should be heading into Cooperstown. Of course whether or not he actually does might be a different story.

There are quite a few people out there and many of them are Hall of Fame voters who think that because Ortiz has pretty much been exclusively a designated hitter that he has not been a complete enough player to warrant induction. These voters need to get over themselves. The designated hitter position has been around now for over forty years and it is here to stay. As well, Ortiz has shown consistent dominance as a designated hitter for a decade which seems to be a huge qualifier to be considered a Hall of Famer.

The Boston Red Sox do not win at least two of their World Series championships without Ortiz providing clutch hit after clutch hit. I think it will be interesting to see what the voters do about Ortiz when he is eligible. There have been players such as Frank Thomas and Paul Molitor who were mostly designated hitters but did start out their careers at other positions who are in. However, Ortiz’s statistics are just so impressive that they can’t be ignored. One needs to look past the designated hitter issue as well as the very alleged PED rumors. He’s in.

Thank you, Minnesota Twins.

Carter Roane is a Boston Red Sox writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter@CarterGRoane, “Like”him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.