Is David Ortiz Becoming Hard to Like?
Posted on July 28th, 2014 in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
After hitting a game-winning home run against Tampa Bay, Ortiz stood at the plate, stared at pitcher Chris Archer, and flipped his bat. Pretty cocky stuff for a guy on a team that’s just lost five straight and is saddled in last place in baseball’s weakest division.
‘‘I don’t know what makes him think that he can showboat the way he does, and then nobody retaliates,’’ Archer said. ‘‘Nobody looks at him in a funny way or pitches him inside. I don’t know why he feels like that, but obviously he feels the way David (Price) said he does — he feels like he’s bigger than the game. He feels like the show is all about him.’’
Exactly!
Ortiz has been increasingly curmudgeonly this season, and at age 38, he’s hit 25 homers about 55% of the way through the season. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, Sox fans? Just sayin’….
7 Responses
7/28/2014 10:11 am
Counterargument: in an otherwise lost season, Papi is still entertaining, talented, and well worth watching.
7/28/2014 1:02 pm
My serious feeling: He’s a great hitter, though probably helped, at least in the past, by steroids—but a great hitter regardless—who has become a bit of a boor this year. And I used to like him, despite everything. (The White House incident didn’t help.)
7/28/2014 4:21 pm
Interesting that the question in your title even matters. Nobody ever liked Ted Williams. He was never lovable — personally he was a jerk, actually. But I don’t think people used to write columns about how unlovable he was. Times change.
I do understand why you wrote this — Papi’s reputation as a ballplayer is in part based on his lovability, a kind of Ruthian loves-little-kids lovability, so if he loses that his reputation declines. Just saying, I guess, that the personality side of sports is pretty silly. I kind of preferred Williams’s disciplined arrogance, granted that I did not witness it first hand.
7/28/2014 8:31 pm
Another view. He’s certainly right that there were no similar complaints about Brandi Chastain showing up the Chinese goalkeeper.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/07/28/baseball-needs-more-david-ortiz-bat-flips-not-fewer/vAHqKdBw2SlyeALCL3bOWM/story.html
7/28/2014 9:08 pm
“Saddled”?
7/29/2014 9:55 am
Looks like Fareed Zakaria is over-extending himself again… now to become a “contributing editor” at Atlantic without giving up other responsibilities… how long til he gets in trouble for cutting corners once more, you think?
7/29/2014 12:37 pm
Your creative juices flowing slowly today Rich?
Did you see the video of Chris Archer kissing his bicep after striking out Nava? That was classy, right?
http://nesn.com/2014/07/chris-archer-strikeout-celebration-came-in-infant-stages-of-my-career/
Baseball players (and perhaps most professional athletes) are big babies. Archer shouldn’t serve up a big fat one next time. He might try shutting up and getting Ortiz out instead.
What do the Rays expect? Price hits Papi and now the Rays think Papi should just meekly jog around the bases after he hits one out. I think not. They should expect more of the same for the rest of the year. We pay to be entertained. Papi’s reaction to hitting a homer off a Ray is entertainment. Get over it Rays. It’s about all us Sox fans have left this season.