Ortiz may be the best
Somewhere along the way, at an undetermined moment before he nearly single-handedly convinced a region’s legion that sports miracles can come true, David Ortiz became the Red Sox’s best, and by progressive virtue, most important player.
He’s unarguably the best value in baseball, nee, all of sports, raking in a relatively mere $5.25 million this season, when he could be making upwards of $12 million-$15 million on the free-agent market. For what the Red Sox are paying Manny Ramirez, they could have a trio of Ortiz clones with some extra dough left over to buy out the remainder of Kevin Millar’s contract.
But maybe he’s also become something that some are going to find blasphemous to consider with a history of Splendid Splinter, the Babe, and Captain Carl. He has become, or at the very least is well on his way to becoming, the best player in franchise history.
Three seasons in a town usually aren’t enough to make you a legend, except in the case of Big Papi, who is to Red Sox Nation what Larry Bird and Tom Brady are to their respective fandoms. And in those three seasons, we see Ortiz, time and time again coming through when it matters most, like some kind of pre-programmed Xbox component. Down by a run in the ninth? OK. Ask Papi and thou shalt receive.
Yesterday was just the latest example. Any lingering doubters out there who still weren’t too sure about Edgar Renteria, the majority of them have come around now. With Mark Bellhorn on first base in the ninth, two outs, down by a run to the Orioles and Ortiz on deck, Renteria laid down a perfect bunt for a base hit. You think he doesn’t know Ortiz’s reputation? He had to witness it on the other side in St. Louis last year. He knew what was going on. Everybody at Fenway knew what was going on. Why should he try and do the job when the guy hitting behind him has to go to two pages on his resume because of these situations?
Center-field bomb. Win. Dirty Water.
If it weren’t for David Ortiz, the Red Sox would not have the benefit of parading that trophy around every town in New England. Yaz, Williams, Fisk, Evans, Rice, Nomar, none of them ever brought the elusive golden pennants back to Boston. Ortiz didn’t do it single-handedly. But just about. He doesn’t hit that home run in the wee hours of the morning in Game 4 of the ALCS, and Curt Schilling never gets to show off his Type A-negative. He doesn’t knock that base hit up the middle in Game 5, and there is no party in a late-night misty St. Louis, under the Babe’s crying eyes.
If this were a numbers argument, there’s no way Ortiz could win obviously, having only put up 331 games in a Red Sox uniform. You can save those for Manny Ramirez’s place in the Boston books. With Ortiz, it’s all about being ready for the moment. To me, that’s more important than hitting .336 with your team 16 games out of first place. He has seven playoff homers, two fewer than Jason Varitek, who has played in three more series over two years. He has 27 postseason runs batted in, already the most in Red Sox history. Oh, and one ring.
His 85 homers with Boston don’t even land him in the top 25 in the club annals. His 283 runs batted in are 233 fewer than Troy O’Leary’s total. He may never hit .340 like Misters Williams and Boggs, but .299-.301 will do just fine. In fact, look in the Red Sox media guide at the club’s career batting leaders, and the name David Ortiz is nowhere to be found.
Yet.
After his team lost in crushing fashion that chilly fall night in 2003, when Grady Little became a national joke up there with Spam and Lewinsky, Ortiz remarked how upon the team’s return he saw all the hurt faces of Red Sox Nation, walking the streets of a gloomy Boston. He took that memory and carried it with him all last season, determined to turn those frowns into glee. For most athletes, the pain of losing lasts only as long as it takes to get a tee time. Ortiz made himself remember the hurt, and like a parent taking care of his cubs, rectified the situation. Big Papi indeed.
How many ballplayers would see the effect his team has on its fans, and take it to heart like Ortiz? Many will say it, how much the fans mean to them, how they love playing here, how there’s nothing like it. Some may mean all of it. Some say all the right things, but could give a damn about the big picture.
David Ortiz, after just one season in Boston, understood what it means to be a member of Red Sox Nation more than any player before him or any of his teammates ever could. And now, he just delivers wins, time and time again. Dramatic victory after dramatic victory. If you want anybody else in baseball up at the plate with the game on the line, you’re nuts.
Is Ortiz a better hitter than the Splinter? No. He’s not even a better hitter than his teammate Ramirez. But there is nobody in Red Sox history I would rather have up at the plate, and that’s why he might be this franchise’s best player. The bigger the stage, the bigger his presence. Compared to this guy’s heroics over three years, Fisk’s pole shot is a footnote, David Henderson’s legendary homer a faint memory rather than the top three highlight it once was.
Yesterday was the fifth walkoff home run off the bat of Ortiz, reminiscent of the one that ended last year’s ALDS against the LA Angels with one quick swing. Now, we’ve come full circle, with the Angels and old friend Orlando Cabrera arriving at Fenway for the weekend. The story in Boston today is the same as when they left eight months ago: David Ortiz hits game-winning home run, sends fans home happy.
Ortiz makes less than teammates Matt Clement, Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Ramirez, Schilling, Keith Foulke, Renteria, and Johnny Damon, and has a better chance of winning the league’s Most Valuable Player Award than each and every one of them. He makes more money than Williams and Yaz could ever dream of, yet he is more in their neighborhood in the category that counts: all-time great.
Feel free to wait a few more seasons to come to the conclusion, but forgive me if I jump the gun. David Ortiz isn’t just a bargain. He’s the best.
Right now, for sure. And quite possibly ever seen in Boston.
