David Ortiz blessed us Red Sox fans for 15 years, providing us with someone to cheer for, someone to look up to. I clearly remember being a kid, just 8 years old, and watching the Red Sox just to see Ortiz hit, just to watch and hope and pray that he hit a single, a double, a triple (yeah right), or a dinger. He was what got me in to baseball. And I’ve been hearing a crap ton of people saying that Papi did steroids, and that he’s a DH, and all of this bull crap. So today I’m gonna lay it all out, and tell you why Ortiz should be in the hall of fame.

He was an offensive monster.

Ok so he couldn’t really be a defensive monster, but he was damn good at what he did in the box. Ortiz banged out 541 dingers in his career, garnering 2472 hits. But of course, counting stats aren’t the end all. Ortiz had a career slugging percentage of .552, and an OPS of .931. That’s pretty freaking good. And I get all of the people saying that he didn’t play defense, but getting 55.3 WAR in a career without defense is pretty damn impressive. Counting stats aside, from 2004-2007 Ortiz was literally the best hitter in baseball.

He’s the best DH of all time.

I get that everyone thinks Edgar’s the best, but he’s far from it. Let’s compare stats. Ortiz has over 200 more singers, 500 more RBIs, and a .040 higher slugging percentage. I get that Edgar hit for a higher average, but come on now, Edgar played in the juicy era and his power was kinda crap, so it seems only fit that his average would be higher. Now I get it… the best DH award is named after Edgar, and he had some solid seasons, but come on now, when you think of a DH Ortiz is the first person to come to mind. He just defines the position. And of course, the best player at a position should be in the hall of fame, no? I too believe it’s a crime that Edgar’s not in the hall, but keeping Ortiz out of it too? That would be just cruel and unusual.

He’s the clutchest hitter of all time.

Ok maybe not “of all time” but Ortiz is definitely the clutches guy in Red Sox history. Sometimes you just need to forget about all these stats and just look at the experiences. In 2003, Ortiz banged out a number of key hits against the Oakland Athletics to send us to the ALCS, but it’s 2004 that bakes the cake for me. In the ALCS, his walk off bomb against the Angels was iconic, but those back-to-back walkoffs against the Yankees in high pressure situations was insane. Still gives me the goosebumps. Overall, Ortiz has slashed .289/ .404/ .543 in the playoffs, with 17 homers and 61 RBIs. And let’s not forget about all his walk offs and game tying homers in the regular season. That’s clutch too.

Screw all those people saying Ortiz used steroids.

In 2003, Ortiz was named along with 104 other players in the Mitchell report as being a steroid user. This was just after Ortiz’s breakout year. But cmon now, think clearly, Ortiz has had his best seasons while being tested 15 times a year for steroids. Even if you take away the 2003 year, he’s still a hall of farmer, and unlike Barry Bonds Ortiz didn’t come in one year looking like a twig and leave looking like freaking Arnold. He’s always been a big teddy bear.

In conclusion, Davis Ortiz should be enshrined in Cooperstown. Unlike what all the baseball traditionalists think or want to believe, the game has evolved and believe it or not being a DH is a valid job now, a job that earned Ortiz over $100 million. So it’s time to give these DHs a chance, starting with the greatest of them all Davis Ortiz. I’m not a person who likes to use all this fancy shit like oWAR and dWAR and whatever the new fad is, I go by how I feel when the player plays. And if you watched Ortiz play you could tell he was special. So when the next 4 years are up and Ortiz is up for election in 2022, you BBWA dudes better start voting for him. Because there’s gonna be a huge riot in Beantown if he’s not elected first ballot.