Jose Canseco blasts MLB over David Ortiz’s Hall of Fame election

Former big leaguer Jose Canseco blasted MLB and the writers for electing David Ortiz to Cooperstown, while other steroid users were left out.

Canseco hasn’t been shy about his past performance-enhancing drug usage. Heck, he did play in the late-80’s and 90’s after all.

The former Athletic formed an elite Oakland power duo with Mark McGwire. Neither player made the Hall of Fame due to their connection to steroids, and Canseco still seems a little salty about it. With Ortiz — a player who infamously tested positive for a banned substance in 2003, per the New York Times — getting in, Canseco lost it on social media.

Canseco just wants some sort of precedent set, which is the appropriate reaction. Big Papi was considered a lovable figure to the baseball media, while the likes of Barry Bonds were cast as the villains. Therefore, is it really surprising to see Bonds on the outside looking in, despite superior overall accomplishments?

Even Sammy Sosa, who hit more home runs and has the same blemish on his Cooperstown resume as Ortiz, fell well short of enshrinement.

Jose Canseco: MLB screwed it up

Canseco just wants some consistency, and, frankly, he’s not going to get it.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is notoriously stubborn, as well as the voting system that determines who is immortalized inside. Despite the likes of Bonds, Sosa, Roger Clemens and more who still have a chance at getting in through a variety of committees, they will be forced to sweat it out as if they weren’t some of the greatest individual talents in the history of the sport.

Cheating — even if it wasn’t seen as such at the time — comes with a price. Professional baseball in this country needed saving, and a select few provided that sort of entertainment thanks in part to controlled, but illegal, substances.

Now we all pretend to play dumb.