As many of you know, especially those Red Sox fans, the picture above has become an all-too-familiar sight when David Ortiz has come to plate this year, and as somone who's used to seeing this guy clobber my team its very hard to believe. Of course knowing my luck, I'm jinxing the whole thing and Ortiz will start hitting balls out like its going out of style, but as April has turned into Mid May without a home run people are starting to wonder is this the end of "Big Papi"? (by the way, gayest nickname ever, how grown men can call another man Papi and think nothing of it is beyond me) While it is too early to start throwing dirt on his grave, it seems more and more clear that this is not the same guy who only two years ago was one of the most feared hitters in the game.
The rise of David Ortiz has always struck me to be a curious one. Wallowing in obsurity with the Minnesota Twins for years he was finally released, not traded released at 26 he was picked up by the red sox and you'd be hard pressed to peg him as being a future star. Never hitting more than 20 home runs, never posting an OBP over .350, never slugging over .500, he seemed like a very one dimensional guy, hitter who'd hit you some dingers and do very little else for you. But then all of a sudden at age 27 he had a year to remember hitting 31 home runs, driving in 101, slugging .592 and he just got better from there, hitting more home runs every year until reaching his zenith of 54 in 2006. And yet somehow 2006 seems so long ago while he still put up productive years, last year he put good numbers until last year and his fall as been dramatic and sudden. A bit suspect how he just become really good late in his career and and all of a sudden looks pretty forgettable now that steroid testing has become more rigorous no? I hate to go there, but it seems pretty plain that something was going afoul there and for me it's a shame that it seems clear that Ortiz is yet another among the many guilty parties of the Steroid Era.
Who knows, I could be totally wrong and probably Ortiz, who has been benched this week, could come back gangbusters and hit 4 home runs in two games or something, but its looking more and more likely that its not true and part of me is sad to see him fall. Sure, the worse the Red Sox are, the less difficult they are to beat, but its an empty victory when you beat Ortiz on a high fastball these days because frankly it happens all the time. Congratulations you're one of twenty other pitchers this year to embarass the big guy, and it doesn't mean as much anymore. Not that the Sox really need his help these days, thanks to the likes of Jason Bay, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia, but it seemed a lot more gratifying when we could shut down that fat bastard.
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