Papi’s powerful ending:
Popular Red Sox DH stands firm on retirement plans despite MVP-caliber season
An MVP-caliber season is just part of David Ortiz’s grand finale with the Red Sox.
Maureen Mullen
What if he wins the All-Star Game MVP?
Or is named the AL MVP for the first time in his career? Or wins his first Triple Crown? Or wins his fourth World Series?
Since announcing his retirement in November on his 40th birthday, David Ortiz has steadfastly maintained that this is it. He’s not going to change his mind. He’s not coming back.
The longtime designated hitter spoke of how difficult it was to get ready for each game, the amount of offseason maintenance work he had to do, the aches in his heavily wrapped ankles along with pains in the rest of his aging bones.
But, really? How can he not come back?
“Why do you guys keep on asking me that question?” the designated hitter said recently while sitting in the Red Sox dugout at Fenway Park.
For most of the season — his 20th in the big leagues and 14th in Boston — he has been among the major league leaders in many offensive categories — average, home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, doubles. He even entered July with two stolen bases, half his single-season career high set in 2013, which gave him 17 in his career.
It seems with each game he puts yet another milestone in the rearview mirror. On the first Friday night of July he hit his 522nd home run, passing Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Frank Thomas and Willie McCovey for sole possession of 19th place on the all-time list.
He entered July leading the majors in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, doubles and extra-base hits. He was hitting more than 50 points above his .286 career average. His on-base-plus-slugging percentage was nearly 180 points higher than his .931 career average.
Doesn’t he know 40-year-olds aren’t supposed to perform like this?
“I’m never surprised by what he can do with a bat in his hand,” Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis says. “But it’s his last year playing. He could have come in here and
said, ‘I’m just going to go through the year and whatever happens happens.’ But he didn’t. He came in, he’s focused, he takes his atbats seriously. Very seriously.
“He works hard. And it’s impressive because it’s a good example — a great example — for the young players. When you’re looking at a guy that’s 40 years old and that’s on his last season of baseball and to care as much and be as disciplined and to work as hard and be as focused, it pushes them to do the same.”
But perhaps it is specifically because he is leaving that he is hitting the way he is, as he’s going all out until the end. Ortiz doesn’t see it that way. “I’m always all-in to begin with,” he says. “I don’t know. We got more hitters now. The whole focus is not just on me. We got guys hitting well, the younger guys. So this is what I think — when pitchers have to face more good hitters at once, they got a tendency to make more mistakes. But other than that, I always get prepared to do some damage. I never take anything for granted.”
When it is pointed out to him that those young teammates he mentioned are closer in age to his three children, who range in age from 11 to 19, he lets out a typically hearty Big Papi laugh. “Yeah, you’re right,” he says. “He is like a father for us,” 25-year-old catcher Christian Vazquez says.
“We are going to miss him a lot,” 23-year-old shortstop Xander Bogaerts says. “He’s the best player on the team. He doesn’t play defense, but he still is the best hitter, for sure, probably even in the game right now. Hopefully he gets the Triple Crown so he can walk off like a champ. The way he interacts with us young guys, and his jokes, his presence goes a much longer way than his performance on the field.”
‘A PRETTY SPECIAL GUY’
Ortiz and second baseman Dustin Pedroia — who, at 32, is a little closer to Ortiz’s age group — are the longest-tenured Red Sox teammates. Pedroia debuted in 2006 and struggled mightily that season and the beginning of the next before catching fire to be named the 2007 AL Rookie of the Year.
“He’s been unbelievable since Day One,” Pedroia says of Ortiz. “He treats everybody with respect. He’s a great teammate, great person, obviously the best hitter I’ve ever been around. He’s a pretty special guy.
“Everything, not only all the hits, the big hits, the World Series rings, just the way he approaches the game and helps guys and teaches guys how to act and be professional, I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Ortiz has been one of baseball’s most popular players for years. To watch him before a game is to watch an exercise in diplomacy and public relations. There is a steady stream of staff, teammates, opponents, fans and media members seeking a few minutes, one quick quote, a selfie from him. That demand has only become more relentless in his last year in uniform.
“Every day. Every day,” he says. “I’m not going to lie to you. Every day. But this is part of what it is, right?”
And he can’t say no. “Especially me, I don’t like to give anybody a hard time,” he says.
From the moment he arrives at the park until first pitch, he has precious little free time. Perhaps that makes his accomplishments this season even more impressive.
“The game is his island that no one can get to him, other than his teammates,” Red Sox manager John Farrell says. “In a way it’s almost like he’s able to flip the switch once the first pitch is thrown and just have fun and go play the game.
“I think he’s going through this last year knowing it’s his last and I think it’s really freed him up and allowed him to really enjoy the game and be more free of mind. And I think that’s allowed him to be so productive. You see he hasn’t lost any bat speed. And, granted, he’s got a lot of maintenance to do physically to get ready for a game, but I think from a mental standpoint he’s so free of mind and in the moment that there’s no distractions.”
For some, Ortiz has been a teammate, a friend, a rival, a mentor, a nemesis. For at least one, he has been all. Ortiz’s accomplishments this season are no less impressive.
“I’m incredibly impressed, but I can’t say that I’m surprised,” says the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, who was with Oritz in the Seattle Mariners system in 1994 and 1995. “He’s always had this ‘it’ factor. I’ve said all along that he reminds me of the Magic Johnson of our sport. He’s magnetic, he’s a supreme talent, and I think he’s going to go down as one of the great all-time clutch hitters.
“I think he’s going to be known equally for what a big presence and what a big personality he’s been, what an ambassador he’s been for the game as well as at least a three-time world champion. And he’s been the main cog of all three championship teams. He’s been right there in the middle of it. I think Boston, the fans will miss him tremendously, the fans of baseball all over the world will miss him. But I’m very confident that baseball somehow will keep him involved as one of our great ambassadors to help grow the game because there’s no one better.”
Ortiz knows that his time is getting short. It’s bittersweet, he says, but he has no regrets. A billboard on a highway on the way to Fenway reminds passersby, counting down the number of home games left to see Ortiz.
The torch is being passed to the next wave of young Red Sox stars such as Bogaerts, 23; third baseman Travis Shaw, 26; outfielders Mookie Betts, 23, and Jackie Bradley Jr., 26; and Vazquez, 26. One or two of them are likely to play in next week’s All-Star Game.
“Yeah, I think so,” bench coach Torey Lovullo says of the changing of the guard. “And David talks about that: ‘I’m giving it to you guys now because I’m not going to be here next year.’ And Dustin is watching it transform. It will still be his team when David is gone, we know that, but it’s a nice supporting cast that Dustin has around.”
Ortiz’s teammates have tried to talk him into playing more. So far, it hasn’t worked. “I haven’t changed my mind,” he says.
No one in the front office has tried — yet.
“No. If I change my mind, I’ll let them know,” Ortiz says. “But that’s not what I’m thinking right now.”
He’s turning over his team — the team he led to its first World Series title in 86 years along with two more — to the next generation. Of course, he would like one more championship before he closes the record book. But he thinks he’s leaving his team in good hands.
“This organization has a great future with these kids because they are approaching the game like they are veterans already,” he says.
Perhaps because they had the right teacher. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy for them to watch him walk away.
“It’s going to be weird without him here,” says Shaw, who had 45 RBI in his first 80 big-league games. “When you think of the Red Sox, you think of David Ortiz. And without him here, it’s going to be different.”