David Ortiz: Cardinal Killers, Qu'est-ce que c'est

The Picture of David Oritz

Spooky season is upon us and what better way to steel ourselves to ghosts, ghoulies, and things that go bump in the night then to reflect on those players that brought wickedness with them each time they toed the rubber or induced shivers down the spine of the Redbird faithful when they entered the batter’s box.

Every Tuesday and Thursday throughout October, we will highlight a “Cardinal Killer” in hopes to exorcise the terrors they have inflicted upon us.

Out final tale of fright is inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Despite nine years separating his first and last World Series at bats, David Ortiz seemingly did not age. While it may be debatable if Ortiz sold his soul to avoid the horrible, dreadful, aging process, what is not debatable is that Ortiz single-handedly tilted the 2013 World Series in Boston’s favor.

David Ortiz hit a three-run home run in his first World Series at-bat. The blast gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead over the Cardinals in Game 1 of the 2004 Series. While it was his only home run during the four game sweep, Big Papi had reached legend status for his role in helping break one of sport’s most infamous ‘curses.’

By 2009, though, it appeared Ortiz’s career was winding down.  Then ESPN writer, Bill Simmons even wrote a eulogy that summer noting that “it’s clear that David Ortiz no longer excels at baseball.” Simmons concluded that “Barring a miraculous return of bat speed, he'll be benched or released soon.” Ortiz finished 2009 with a .238 average and was left off the All-Star team for the first time since 2003.

Boston, though, did not heed The Sports Guy’s advice and kept playing Ortiz. While each season his numbers slowly rose back to respectability, the Red Sox as a team struggled to regain their championship swagger. Having missed the playoffs for three straight years, the 2013 Red Sox defied expectations, finishing with the best record in the American League and tied with the Cardinals for the best record in baseball at 97-65.  Both teams clinched their respective pennants in six games, ensuring the franchises would meet for the fourth time in the World Series and second time in ten years. 

As much as Cardinals fans hoped for a different outcome this time, when Game 1 ended the Red Sox were victors and David Ortiz had a home run and three more RBIs. Unlike 2004 though, the Cardinals were able to win in Boston and even took a Series lead after Will Middlebrooks heinously tripped Allen Craig. But what have horror movies taught us? The jump scare is always most frightening when you finally feel safe. And the terror that was David Ortiz was lurking in the shadows.

Ortiz would go 6 for 8 with three walks over the final three games (all Red Sox wins) and ended the Series accounting for a quarter of all of Boston’s hits and runs. Indeed, if you take Ortiz’s hits away, the Red Sox as a team hit .169.

You can’t do that, though. So you’re left with Ortiz putting up numbers a slow pitch softball player would envy: 11 hits in 16 at-bats; 2 home runs; 8 walks in 6 games; an astronomical .780 on base percentage; a solitary strike out. “We weren't supposed to throw him any strikes, but I guess everyone's ego got the best of ourselves,” said Joe Kelly, who started Game 3. “We were trying to throw pitcher's pitches, but he was such a great hitter that he was hitting all of them.” Ortiz was - of course - named World Series MVP and in the process cemented himself as one of the greatest Cardinal Killers of all time.

Oscar Wilde wrote in the preface to The Painting of Dorian Gray that “Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.”

While as much as we would like to explain Big Papi’s World Series dominance against the Cardinals as the result of a deformed portrait hanging on the other side of the Green Monster, we are instead faced with an existential question when thinking of Ortiz (or really any Cardinal Killer). Are we baseball fans or are we Cardinal fans?

As Cardinal fans, seeing Ortiz come to the plate brought a feeling of anxiety seldom seen outside nightmares involving forgotten class schedules. But as a baseball fan, what Ortiz accomplished in 2013 was unparalleled and worthy of adoration.

In the history of baseball, no player has a higher batting average or higher on-base percentage in a single World Series (min. 15 ABs) than Ortiz in 2013. Not Ruth, not Mantle, not Bonds. David Ortiz performed on a plane no other player has ever reached. That is inherently impressive - and the beauty should not be dulled just because it was inflicted upon our favorite team.

And perhaps that is how we ultimately defeat those things that go bump in the night. We turn on the light. We take away the power of the unknown. We do not dread what Ortiz or other Cardinal killers will do when facing our favorite team, we revel in anticipation that either way we will experience something exciting, magnificent, memorable. No matter what happens, it is just beautiful baseball. That is all.