Pete Rose Says David Ortiz Isn't A Hall Of Famer Because He Doesn't Have Enough Hits
Pete Rose is making headlines yet again, but let’s make one thing clear — the last time he made headlines was for speaking out against fans who were counting Ichiro Suzuki’s hits in Japan towards his hits in the MLB in order to crown Ichiro as the new Hit King, thus making Rose the “Hit Queen”. He wasn’t wrong for speaking out against that notion. Everybody knows Rose is the true Hit King.
Was he right this time, though? Not so much. On the All Star Game pregame show, Rose was asked about David Ortiz’s Hall of Fame candidacy.
“Borderline,” Rose said when asked if Ortiz was a HOFer. “Because of how many hits he has. But if he plays a couple more years, he’s a cinch.”
Pete, you have more hits than anybody ever and you’re not even in the Hall of Fame. No, but seriously, this is really stupid. When you think of Hall of Fame numbers, you think of 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts, 500 home runs, and 3,000 hits. A lot of those benchmarks have changed in recent years for different reasons. I don’t think we’ll ever see another 300-game winner again. The game’s just different now. You know who the active wins leader is? Bartolo Colon with 225. After that, it’s CC Sabathia with 219. Colon is 43, and while Sabathia is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance season, he’s 35 and won’t sniff 300.
Thanks to the Steroid Era, there were four players on last year’s Hall of Fame ballot who had at least 500 home runs that were not elected. Mark McGwire is actually off of the ballot now, because he failed to get in on his tenth attempt. There weren’t any players with 3,000 hits on last year’s ballot, but that’s usually a milestone that grants you entry into the Hall of Fame, as does 3,000 strikeouts, unless you’re Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, but Schill will get in.
That brings us to Ortiz’s case. Stating the obvious, but if he doesn’t get in on the first ballot, or at all, then we’ll know why. It’ll be because of his connection to PEDs, which I wrote about yesterday. There’s a big difference in what I wrote about yesterday in comparison to today, though. The case for why he deserved a standing ovation at his final All Star Game is much different than the case to elect him to the Hall of Fame.
But if we’re debunking Pete Rose’s point here, that Ortiz shouldn’t get in because of his hit total, let me just first point out that he’s not a 3,000 hit guy, nor will he ever be. But you don’t need 3,000 hits to get into the Cooperstown. As of today, Ortiz has exactly 2,400 hits. Here’s a few Hall of Famers that Ortiz has more hits than — Ryne Sandberg, Carlton Fisk, Orlando Cepeda, Barry Larkin, Eddie Mathews, Mike Schmidt, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Willie McCovey, and Ortiz’s idol, Kirby Puckett. All those guys got into the Hall of Fame in their own way. Ortiz’s way is smashing baseballs.
In baseball history, there are only three players who have amassed 500 home runs and 600 doubles. Their names are Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, and David Ortiz. We all know the postseason resume, so we don’t need to harp on that. If Ortiz doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame, we’ll all know why, and it won’t be because of his career hits total. In my opinion, it won’t be on the first ballot, but they’ll put him in eventually. They’ll make him sweat it out for a few years, but that call will come.