Saturday, May 7, 2016

David Ortiz & Perennial Yankees Killers During my Lifetime


As much as I hate to admit this you have to respect what David Ortiz has done in his major league career. Sure you have the controversy of the failed steroid test and the Mitchell Report inclusion that wasn’t an inclusion because a Boston-area Senator was in charge of the report but if you can presume that he has been clean since, and every drug test he’s taken has suggested that he is, then you still have to think he has Hall of Fame numbers. Numbers, I didn’t say credentials. While his Hall of Fame credentials may always be up for debate and the fact that he has as many failed tests as Alex Rodriguez has may be as well you cannot deny the fact that he’s been a perennial Yankee killer. In fact there have been quite a few during my lifetime and we will showcase them here this evening in honor, for lack of a better word, of Ortiz.

Ortiz once had a teammate, speaking of failed steroid tests, in Manny Ramirez that made up one of the toughest middle-of-the-lineups in my recent memory. Ramirez faced the Yankees in 203 games and hit a monster 55 home runs against them with 165 RBI and a .322 batting average. Ramirez killed just about every team though. 

Speaking of Ortiz, Ramirez and the Red Sox there was a trio of starting pitchers that the Yankees simply could not get to on most nights consistently. Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey all shut down some of the greatest offenses of my lifetime starting with Beckett in the 2003 World Series and ending with Lester and Lackey most recently before being traded away by the Red Sox. 

Speaking of the pitching side of things I can remember Roy Halladay mowing down Yankees with tons of consistency. It didn’t matter who the mighty Yankees sent at Halladay in his years with the Toronto Blue Jays the man they called Doc set them down with ease. I halfway remember skipping games on purpose that he pitched to save myself the aggravation. 


The final pair of teammates to completely torment the Yankees date back to my early years as a fan. Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez absolutely destroyed the New York Yankees. I can remember Tino Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. trading home runs on a Saturday afternoon in the Bronx more than once and it always seemed like the Mariners got the better of the Yankees. It started in 1995 in the ALDS and it went on that way until the Yankees beat the 116-win Mariners in 2001. Edgar killed Yankees closer Mariano Rivera at the plate, one of the few that could say that, and Griffey killed anyone and everyone put in front of him during his prime. All because as a child he got kicked out of the Yankees clubhouse when his father, Ken Griffey Sr., was a member of the team. Way to hold a grudge kid!

13 comments:

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  2. Ortiz has been great over his life span in Boston but, he is only a DH and has been for many years.
    If Ortiz has Hall of Fame numbers @BA .285, OBP .378, TB 4496, HR 510...would not A-Rod be in the a better position to be in the HoF @ BA 296, OBP .382, TB 5766, HR 692.
    I mean there are so many in already (so they say) Ortiz will make it because everyone loves him and is a great guy. I am tired of seeing players in the Hall for no other reason than they had a very good career and were very nice guys, the salt of the earth, etc. With no stats to back it up!

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  3. He's a juicer and gets away with it because of his race. Sorry just calling it the way I see it. He gets a free pass. He was on the Mitchell list, however Motchell was associated with the Roid Sux do free pass again. Here is a guy who got cut by the twinkies and could never hit 20hr in the metronome. Juicer all the way like Manny. Edgar Martinez is a way better DH badge won't get in

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    1. Hans, we really don't know for sure that Ortiz was a juicer, do we! I remember hearing of him failing a drug test, then nothing at all about it. And yes, many think because of the Commissioner and Mitchell, the same with Manny. Manny failed 2 tests that I heard of!

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    2. Manny failed three tests including the same one that David Ortiz failed back when it wasn't technically against the rules. Manny failed two tests after testing was implemented and retired to dodge a suspension.

      Ortiz to the best of our knowledge has been clean since then, but then again A Rod didn't fail a test with the Biogenesis crap either.

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    3. Guy's Ortiz has said in articles he has drank some things he wasn't sure were legal....hmm I think he knows it was illegal. It's BS because he has failed the test and is revered as a king and arod hasn't failed a test but admitted it and is a scumbag. Double standard me thinks and Reed we do know for sure he is a juicer

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    4. I will take your word for it, as I don't know for sure.

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    6. Here is the article where he states he drank things that could have contained things and that he was on the list that tested positive. Juicer all the way. Couldn't hit 20 Hr's in the homer dome and gets cut by twins and then becomes a HR machine. Ya and your the sports pope.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/sports/baseball/31doping.html?_r=0

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    7. I may be retired but I still have other things to do other than read everything there is on the Yankees.
      And by the way I give you my Sports Blessing Hans; Here is hoping you change your attitude of "everyone is picking on me"! Nobody is picking on you, you have some good and like the rest of us...some bad ideas. So what, no big deal no one is perfect..even I can be wrong&%$#&%! LOL
      Have a great day Hans and thanks for bringing up that information!

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  4. Reed maybe your retirement is getting the best of you. Not once have I said anything about anyone picking on me. I bust your chops on you not agreeing with me because you feel its in your best interest not to. So get off your high horse and stop trying to incite shit that isn't there unless you want to go there which I will be more then happy to do so? Your choice Reed

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    1. Ok, Hans, I have tried to be as lite as possible with you in my answers but you seem to think I am trying to incite shit with you. Your trouble is you have no sense of humor. I was making a joke and you couldn't read the LOL at the end...Laugh Out Loud!
      Sorry, you seem disconnected from the real world and I won't deal with it anymore.

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    2. Thank you. I appreciate you not answering my posts as your lol was fucking sarcastic and you can try to spin it anyway you want but you and I know the truth. It's been nice conversing with you

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)