This year, there are three seminal Hall of Fame cases on their tenth year on the ballot. By all accounts, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa won’t be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Now, Bonds and Clemens have complicated their Hall of Fame cases more than anyone. Each have had their respective criminal cases related to the steroids, and each have had significant off the field issues with Bonds’ abusive behavior and Clemens’ inappropriate relationships.

Really, the cases against Bonds and Clemens run much deeper than steroids. To that point, you can understand their failure to receive the needed vote.

That’s not really the case with Sosa. He denied using PEDs at the congressional hearing even though it was revealed he tested positive during the survey testing. To a certain extent, there was the corked bat incident.

Beyond that, Sosa was the first man to hit 60 homers in consecutive seasons. He helped transform the Chicago Cubs into contenders. His running to right field with an American flag post 9/11 still gives many goosebumps.

All told, Sosa had a 58.6 WAR, and he hit 609 homers. Before delving into whether those are Hall of Fame worthy numbers, just keep it in consideration.

Right now, according to Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker, David Ortiz is faring significantly better than Sosa in the voting. Really, there is no justification for this.

The steroids case against Sosa is the same against Ortiz as both tested positive in the survey testing. Again, this is the same test results which have kept Sosa out of the Hall of Fame.

Ortiz is a known hot head. He couldn’t handle teams returning the favor for celebrations, and he’s thrown bats at umpires. Considering Mike Piazza and the 2000 World Series, throwing bats at people is something else Ortiz has in common with Clemens.

Through it all, he had a 55.3 WAR and 541 homers. That puts him a significant step behind Sosa. Again, he’s doing better in voting than Sosa.

He’s also well ahead of Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod was clearly the far superior player, but he was suspended for PEDs. Notably, A-Rod and Ortiz used the same MLB banned trainer.

Interestingly enough, while that link isn’t enough to tinge Ortiz, it was enough to keep Gary Sheffield out of the Hall of Fame. According to Sheffield, he was duped by Bonds and BALCO.

This has kept Sheffield out of the Hall of Fame. He has a 60.5 WAR with 509 homers.

Overall, in terms of performance on the field, Bonds, Clemens, Rodriguez, Sheffield, and Sosa had far superior careers than Ortiz. Despite that, Ortiz testing positive and working with MLB banned trainers has had zero impact on his Hall of Fame case like it did with the others.

For reasons that confound reason, nothing sticks to Ortiz. He’s allowed to cheat and throw bats at people. He’s allowed to use banned trainers. While all of these things in the singular have proven fatal to others Hall of Fame chances, it appears it won’t fit Ortiz.

Because of this and many more reasons, if he’s elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, it would be a complete and utter farce.