Will there ever be a player quite like Boston Red Sox legend and soon-to-be Hall of Famer David Ortiz again?
There will be another slugger to join the 500 home run club. Surely someone will surpass his 541 career homers as well as his many statistics that rank toward the top of Major League Baseball history. But there is a lot more than statistics behind what made Ortiz a living legend. There’s a good chance they’ll never be anyone quite like Big Papi.
Most Clutch Hitter Of All Time
While having 10 seasons of 30 home runs and 100 RBIs makes him one of the best ever, his knack for hitting in the clutch is what set him apart from the rest of the league’s top sluggers.
Big Papi had 23 walk-off hits in his career, four more than the next closest player. On top of the incredible stories that cement his legacy as the most clutch hitter of all time, he also happens to have the statistic to back it up.
Chip On His Shoulder
The city of Boston has been blessed with superstar athletes who have been spurned to the point where they work like they are fighting for the last roster spot regardless of their accolades.
Tom Brady is the most famous sixth-round pick of all time. His leading receiver for a portion of his career was a former college quarterback taken as a seventh-round flier, Julian Edelman.
Atop the many sob-to-success stories is Ortiz, who was traded as a lowly player to be named later from the Seattle Mariners to the Minnesota Twins, who would later release him.
Not to mention, he was not an overnight success story with the Red Sox. He had to battle for at-bats in 2003 against Jeremy Giambi, who got the Opening Day nod over Ortiz. Once Big Papi got hot, he never looked back, finishing fifth in MVP voting during his first season in Boston and truly launching a Hall of Fame career.
Larger Than Life Personality
Ortiz’s personality had a major influence on three championship-winning teams. He infamously rallied the 2013 championship team twice. First with the “This is our (expletive) city” speech, and then in the dugout during the World Series, which led to three straight victories to capture the title.
The Red Sox legend also inspired the next wave and even mentored a few. Alex Verdugo fell in love with the game largely due to wanting to be as clutch as David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Verdugo’s done everything he can do to embody the duo and had some clutch moments in a Red Sox uniform already.
The Ortiz era overlapped with some of the players in the organization currently, such as Xander Bogaerts, who is the unofficial captain of the roster. He’s been an influence on Bogaerts and just about every other player to walk into the Red Sox clubhouse.
The Perfect Era
Maybe there will be someone to surpass the ridiculous tally of walk-off hits Ortiz racked up. Maybe they’ll even be in the postseason and that next player will also carry three championship teams. But nobody will be able to replicate the Red Sox going from lovable losers to one of the most well-respected organizations on the back of Ortiz. There will never be a more famous series than the 2004 Red Sox-Yankees ALCS, where Ortiz hit walkoffs on back-to-back nights, facing elimination both times.
Even if his success was somehow replicated, the moments in which he rose to the occasion would not be.
