If he's not the greatest Red Sox player I've ever seen, he's second only to Pedro.
Beyond that, there's not much left to say about him. The only way to talk more about David Ortiz is to compare him to other players and say how much they suck by comparison. And since I do want to talk about him...
Sucks!
Sucks!
Just kidding.
MVP! MVP! MVP! The whole "A-Rod plays in the field" defense looks awfully foolish now, doesn't it?
Speaking of A-Rod, Papi's latest act of generosity underscores the whole "booing A-Rod" fiasco pretty nicely. The 2005 MVP race forced a comparison to be drawn that is equally unfair to both players. A-Rod won the battle last fall, but the flip side is that Ortiz is winning the war. Despite A-Rod's generally superlative play in just about every aspect of the game, Big Papi still hits home runs better than A-Rod has ever done anything.
That's the tragic thing: the comparison is equally unfair on both sides, but Ortiz has earned forgiveness for his weaknesses by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat so many times. His negative attributes are far outweighed by the abundant gifts he's given us over the years. Meanwhile, what's A-Rod going to do for them that Mo Rivera and Derek Jeter haven't already done? He's between a rock and a hard place. It's not his fault, but there it is.
A-Rod's only chance for redemption is to escape Big Papi's immediate shadow and play for some other star-crossed franchise. The Cubs. The Giants. The Indians. He needs be their hero if he wants to be a legend, because any chance he had to become a legend in New York has been killed by Big Papi.
posted by Jeff at
8:53 AM
2 Comments:
We'll see, if A-Rod plays out his career in NY, he's likely to win a couple of World Series in that time, and if he hits 700 home runs and starts threatening the leaderboard, he'll still be a legend. And as much as I would rather have Ortiz on my team than A-Rod, I'd be willing to be that A-Rod is better remembered in another 50 years. Especially if they ever move him back to SS, where he'll get that extra 1/2 second he needs to be an elite defender again. We'll see though.
And Pujols is still better than Ortiz. But if I was a Sox fan, I'd probably be saying the same thing. Ortiz has me for the guy I would most want up at the plate when I really need a win.
By
Jesse, at 6:24 PM
You're probably right that when he passes 700 they'll start rewriting history for him. But still, his defining moments thus far are a) signing the $252M contract, and b) The Slap. That's about it. I guess you can count his slew of "nobody's gotten to ___ number of _____s at a younger age" records.
I guess people could forget about all this, and he could attain "legend" status. But Dan Marino is also a legend. Anyone want to line up and tell their favorite Dan Marino stories? Mine is how he always blamed his teammates when he threw stupid interceptions. But he sure had some great stats! Just like another QB who's probably already a legend; since I'm bitching about Marino and his gaudy stats, you should already know who I'm talking about.
The point is that none of them have done shit yet. If A-Rod wins a ring then it's all different, but until then it'll be an awful lot harder for the revisionists to revise him.
Anyway, you're about right. But when you think about it, Pujols kinda sucks. Look at the World Series sweep. Papi would've NEVER gone as ice-cold as Pujols did over those four games. Never. It was like he didn't exist. Not that Pu-pu doesn't have late-game chops... Brad Lidge can attest to that. But he's no Papi in that regard.
By
Jeff, at 9:09 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home