Comments on: David Ortiz’s Place Among All-Time Red Sox Greats

By: Connor G

Connor G — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:29:13 +0000

Matthew, I have been arguing this very discussion with my friends and I love seeing your side of the story. I think personally that David Ortiz is the greatest RedSox player of all time. My reasons for this is breaking the curse, all of his postseason numbers, the aspect of facing a specialist and doing it in this area. I believe that pitchers now a days are far superior. I also know that David Ortiz single handily caused shifts to have a meteoric rise in the MLB. I was not lucky enough to see Ted Williams play but I will always tell people that I was lucky enough to see the greatest Redsox player.

By: oldbopper

oldbopper — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 20:04:37 +0000

Matthew, you are correct but you are wrong. I have been fortunate enough to attend games at Fenway since 1948 and I watched Ted spit at pitch after pitch an inch outside. I was at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 6, 1960 when Ted hit his last HR there off Eli Grba. He was the greatest hitter that ever played and, without debate, the greatest Red Sox player of all time, but he never won it all!! David Ortiz may only be fourth on the list of Red Sox players on the field but he is first, and by a comfortable margin, as the most important player in Red Sox history. The 2004 ALCS would have been enough. Game 4 goes without saying, likewise Game 5, but it is the 7th game when he covered Damon’s being thrown out at the plate with the HR that set the tone for the romp that is overlooked. The 2007 ALDS was another tour de force. Just think that in the 2013 ALCS he went 2-22 and was still the man who determined which team won the series. I think it is safe to say that no single offensive player has ever dominated a series like Big Papi did in the 2013 WS. I am a 50 year member of The PGA of America and Jack Nicklaus was a better player than Arnold Palmer but it is Arnold who was, and will always be, the KING! In Boston’s treasured baseball history Ted Williams is the greatest player but David Ortiz is the most beloved and the most important.

By: RP Burke

RP Burke — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 19:42:13 +0000

Well, actually Ted Williams didn’t start the Jimmy Fund, though he was for many years its most enthusiastic booster and supporter. The origins of the Jimmy Fund go to the Boston Braves in their last years in town; the Red Sox took over as the charity’s main sponsor after the Braves moved to Milwaukee. Annually in the 1950s and early 1960s the Braves would come to Fenway for a Jimmy Fund exhibition game during the season.