Papi and the Stadium, Phil’s stumble & debate facts . . .

Yankee Stadium will say goodbye to David Ortiz this week. It means we have to acknowledge, one more time and for the last time, that there has never been a bigger opponent or more colorful opponent for the Yankees, in all ways, than Papi.

And since he got with the Red Sox, it is the Red Sox who have won three World Series, to the Yankees’ one.

He is all that is left now from when Yankees vs. Red Sox was at its best, back in 2003 and 2004, when they didn’t just play all those games against each other in the regular season, but then seven more in the playoffs.

One time Ortiz and the Red Sox had them, only Grady Little left Pedro in there in Game 7 at the old Stadium, and then Mariano Rivera pitched three innings in relief before Aaron Boone went deep. The next year was Ortiz hitting a home run in Game 4 and then knocking in Johnny Damon in extra innings the next night as the Red Sox began the granddaddy comeback of them all.

The rivalry hasn’t been what it was since those days at the old Stadium, and old Fenway. But Ortiz has. Oh, the rivalry was supposed to rise up again last weekend at Fenway before Hanley Ramirez went deep in the bottom of the 9th, and the Red Sox swept that 4-game series that really ended any chance the Yankees had of making the playoffs.

Ortiz, though, he’s still here, in his farewell season, having one of the seasons of his life at the age of 40.

I have thought for so much of the second half of the season that his teammate, Mookie Betts, was the MVP of the American League.

I believe it is Ortiz now, hitting the way he did in the postseason the last time the Red Sox won it all, three years ago.

So the Stadium says goodbye now. Or maybe good riddance. That game the Mets played against the Phillies the other night, tied by Jose Reyes with a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 9th and then won with a 3-run shot by Bat Flip Cabrera, was one of the great regular season wins the Mets have ever had. Just off the other day, Phil Jackson should never say another word concerning the rape allegation against Derrick Rose.

Because whatever the Zen Guy meant, he doesn’t ever again want to have a quote attached to his name saying that Rose isn’t losing any sleep over an alleged crime as serious as this.

Gary Sanchez is going to be pretty chafed that his season has to end in a few days, right? Every time I see one of those “Football is family” commercials I think all over again that the last line should be:

Please, moms, let your sons keep playing Pop Warner.

The Ryder Cup remains one of my favorite sports events on the planet.

You suppose John Tortorella ever runs out of saliva?

If the Giants get to 3-0 today, it may be time to start turning over the engine on the Big Blue Bandwagon Bus.

Lester Holt, who moderates Clinton vs. Trump on Monday night, is going to need the greatest SWAT team of fact-checkers in the history of fact-checking.

Mr. Trump says that if Hillary is fair to him, he’ll be fair to her. Got it. So that means she better not call him a crooked liar.

Because that would be wrong, wrong, wrong.