What a played out title. Oh well, Notorious R.I.P.
So, has there ever been a hitter who was better in the clutch that the great David Ortiz. (I wanted to come up with some nickname for him, you know like Sultan of Swat, Colossus of Clout - and then I realized the Sandlot wasted all of those nicknames on the Pinstriping prostitute - Babe Ruth.) The Sox were opposed in Fenway by the Phil...uhh...I mean the Ryan Howards. And, to augment the Philadelphian problem, their star pitcher and the guy who pitched last night decided to assault his wife and spend some time in the slammer to warm up for his outing.
A few notes for Mr. Brett Myers:
1) You look like a child molester. Let's not perpetuate the image by walloping your wife in public in Boston.
2) The best way to warm up for facing the best offensive team in the bigs is not to spend a few days breaking bread with guys named "Rock" and "Kamikaze." (and by breaking bread, you know what I mean)
*I realize the South Side (Chicago) Steroids are putting up pretty haughty O-stats, but we don't recognize them as a team. The other Sox winning the World Series simply falls into the same category as having no champion in the strike shortened season of 1994.
Now, back to last night. Brett Myers pitched decently given the circumstances. He went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs. However Schilling gave up 3 also and that led to extras. Then in the bottom of the tenth, "The Purveyor of Power" strode up to the plate. He recieved a few pitches from Flash Gordon and then decided to deposit one in the centerfield bleachers.
My real qualm with writing this piece is "why?" Why should I write about something that is as regular an occurence as Aaron Carter showing up on Vh1's "Most Awesomely Bad Songs" list? I debate this and then I think about the other side of the coin. The Peyton Manning, the Karl Malone/John Stockton, the "Can't win the big one" plague. In that light David Ortiz becomes surreal and superhuman - which is a very real possibility. And frankly, I just want to write about the superhuman happenings in the world before the GhostBusters intervene.
Just to prove the outerworldly gift "The Polypheme of Pith" has; he has belted eight walk offs since joining the Red Sox in 2003. Eight! and that is not including all of the walk off basehits he's gotten i.e. the single that won the 14 inning, game 5 of the 2004 ALCS. Trot Nixon, who has been playing since the Sox were the Boston Pilgrims had this to say about Papi, "It's unique, just what he's done in his time here. The big clutch hits he's had here. It doesn't surprise me anymore." I suppose you could compare this to Robert Horry - no wait you can't. Robert Horry is a clutch shooter from three when the game is on the line. However what Ortiz does, well he doesn't hit a jumper. He's hitting triple teamed fadeaways from half court as time expires. Now when Dwyane Wade starts doing that, we'll have a comparison.
So what does this mean for the Sox? Well, the most important aspect of Ortiz's late inning ability is that the Sox always have a great opportunity to win the close, or tied games; especially this year with the addition of Jonathan Papelbon, who has assumed the "best closer in the game" title from Mariano Rivera. Both the best late inning pitcher and late inning hitter are on the same team. Perhaps, the Red Sox are not the best 1-6 inning team, but if they keep it close, they have the advantage in the 7-? innings over any team in baseball. If Keith Foulke comes back from injury and couples with developing star Craig Hansen and Mike Timlin to set up Jonathan "the grim reaper" Papelbon -- no one will score on the bullpen. That will give the Sox time enough to bat around until Papi strides to the dish and routinely disposes of the oppositions pitch amongst the Fenway faithful.
So, as for The Power of Papi, and his penchant for walk off home runs. He will go down into the record books as the most clutch hitter in baseball history. Eight walk off's in 2.5 seasons is unheard of, oh and by the way, he's only 30 - and that is a 30 with no history of injuries.
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