Mark Madden: Voters' decisions hurt Baseball Hall of Fame more than those being excluded

David Ortiz hit 541 career home runs. Barry Bonds hit 762.

Ortiz had 1,768 RBIs. Bonds had 2,558.

Ortiz hit .286. Bonds hit .298.

Ortiz was a DH. Bonds won eight Gold Gloves.

Ortiz never won an MVP. Bonds won seven.

Ortiz flunked a steroid test in 2003. Bonds never flunked a steroid test.

Guess which one got named to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday?

It is the most egregiously idiotic decision ever made by an institution that long since had lost much of its credibility. Bonds informally is blacklisted because of steroids. But Ortiz tested positive. There’s more actual evidence against Ortiz than there is against Bonds.

It confirms what was already obvious: Bonds, like Roger Clemens, is being kept out of the Hall of Fame because he’s surly and disliked. Alleged PED use is just an excuse. (Curt Schilling didn’t make it because of his politics: He’s an extreme conservative.)

Related:

• Kevin Gorman: Hall of Fame votes for steroids-era players complicated, controversial
• Carlos Beltrán brings his own baggage to next year's Hall ballot

The musty old gatekeepers of the grand old game enjoy feeling morally superior. The Hall of Fame’s antiquated morals clause provides them that opportunity.

But almost all of those voters ignored the obvious when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa electrified MLB with their 1998 home run-record chase, bringing baseball back to life after the 1994 players strike. (McGwire and Sosa also are blacklisted informally from the Hall of Fame. Bud Selig, the MLB commissioner who enabled the steroid era, is in the hall.)

Baseball, more than any sport, is a game of stats, not morality.

But some of baseball’s biggest numbers are being set aside in the name of virtue signaling. It hurts the Hall of Fame more than it does those excluded.

What beggars belief is Ortiz tested positive for steroids in 2003 yet still got into the Hall of Fame. Ortiz came up red in survey testing that was supposed to be anonymous.

Ortiz is the anti-Bonds. “Big Papi” is a big, fat, jolly cartoon character who sucked up to the media. That’s why him using steroids got ignored. That’s why he’s in the hall. If you get on the gas but kiss butt, you can get into Cooperstown.

The voters could not possibly be more wrong. They should be ashamed. (They’re not. The baseball media would lead any league in self-righteous hypocrisy. What a bunch of creeps.)

The voters think they punished Bonds. But Bonds made over $193 million playing baseball and didn’t have to give any of it back.

Consider who isn’t in the Hall of Fame:

• Bonds, who is MLB’s career and single-season home run leader.

• Clemens, who won 354 games. That’s ninth all time.

• Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hit leader. (Rose bet on baseball.)

• Shoeless Joe Jackson, whose lifetime average of .356 is third best all time. (Jackson conspired to fix the 1919 World Series.)

• Alex Rodriguez, who has overwhelming statistics but got just 34.3% of the vote in this, his first year on the ballot. (You need 75% to make the Hall.)

• Sosa, who hit 609 home runs.

• McGwire, who hit 583 home runs.

There are other victims of steroid use, like Rafael Palmeiro. There are others the hall’s voters have stupidly whiffed on, like Dave Parker and Dick Allen. (Parker used cocaine. Allen could be difficult. Non-baseball agendas abound.)

The Hall of Fame could get away with its moralizing until Ortiz got in. When a known steroid user got elected because he’s a nice guy. That exposed and it embarrassed.

MLB might do everyone a favor and disappear because of its ongoing labor dispute.

Baseball should go away. Everything about its administration is farcical. Economic imbalance translates to competitive imbalance. MLB is mostly boring because entertainment has been sacrificed at the altar of perceived efficiency.

If you want a local angle, the Pirates stink and are robbing Pittsburgh blind.

Not to be critical.

BTW, what is wrong with enhancing performance?