I Are Baboon

where's lovemuscle been?

min0 lee

He's taking big Papi's slump very hard.

I believe he is went to California to look for Manny.....Manny may have mistakenly taken Big Papi's medicine bag when he was traded...

min0 lee

Thank god for PIP.

Youkillis can sure hit....but he has one of the ugliest batting stance I have ever seen. How does he hit the ball?

min0 lee

To think they were trying to run V-tech out of town.

min0 lee

I never noticed how fugly the Boston players, no wonder the Boston fans hate the Yankees.
Youk looks like a retard.
Pedoria looks like he came out the movie Deliverance.
Big Papi.....ughhhh

Probably why Dice K keeps throwing at pinup star Write.

Haters.


It's really sad to see Ortiz struggle like this.....his bat is super slow, he's missing pitches he used to crush. He also looks softer, not that he ever was an Adonis.

min0 lee

What a dick Youk is, he gets hit only because he moved his hands into the pitch and then starts crying like a baby.

The pitcher has every right to throw inside...it wasn't even close.


Jeter and Alfonso both were sent to the hospital by Pedro (headhunter) and the Yankees never retaliated....that was soft of the Yankees though.

I Are Baboon

That's a very gay observation.

Just sayin'.

shiznit2169

It's baseball, not a fashion/modeling contest. I'd take a hard working "fudgy" (your words) Youkilis over pretty boy A-Rod any day.

min0 lee

You don't think much more fun watching a pretty face at bat?

A -rod has the prettiest eyes.

Who do you think is the cutest red sox? I bet you think V-tech......come on, fess up.

min0 lee

And it's Fugly, short for f-cking ugly.

shiznit2169

Nah, Papelbon.

min0 lee

min0 lee

He needs to be banned from baseball, at least for the rest of the season.
Roid rage will do that.
Talk about your sore losers!


http://www.nypost.com/seven/05252009...0861.htmBoston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon took out his frustrations on Post photographer Anthony Causi Saturday night, hurling a towel at the lensman after blowing a save opportunity against the Mets.

Papelbon had just surrendered a two-run homer to backup catcher Omir Santos -- leading to a 3-2 Amazin' victory -- when Causi had the audacity to do his job and photograph the closer as he sulked in the Sox dugout in the bottom of the ninth.

Papelbon screamed, "Don't take my f- - -ing picture," according to Causi, before throwing his towel at him

It should be noted: Papelbon missed Causi.

"I guess he missed with two pitches that night," Causi cracked.

Papelbon then stormed off to a corner of the dugout, hiding from the lensmen working in the first-base photographers well.

Causi contrasted Papelbon's behavior with that of Yankee closer Mariano Rivera. The fotog recalled taking a picture of Rivera last month at Fenway Park just after the ace reliever blew a save against Boston.

"He knew I was shooting him, and he didn't say a word," Causi said. "A true champion realizes you got to take the good with the bad."

Papelbon flipped out again moments later Saturday, screaming at umps over a close call at first base.

After cooling off, Papelbon took full responsibility for allowing Santos to win the game.

min0 lee

Mariano would never act like this.

P-funk

Papelbon is a baby. I can't stand that guy.

patrick

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shiznit2169

Papelbon is a passionate guy who cares about every game. Youkilis is the same way, he gets upset every time he gets an out. The redsox are a hard-working team and play day in and day out.

And the Yankees? Just a bunch of egotistical prima donnas who care about attention and their big fat paycheck.

IainDaniel

I would like to see your opinion of Papelbon with those actions if he was a Yankee. I can bet they would be quite a bit different.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

I Are Baboon

Throwing towels is some pretty serious shit.

I Are Baboon

By the way: First place.

IainDaniel

I don't really care. But I know if he was in a Yankee uniform, he would be getting blasted.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

min0 lee

This is about the Mets and Red Sox.

IainDaniel

I know sigh. 7 Straight losses. Bats have just disappeared.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

min0 lee

This is one tough division.

I Are Baboon

I'd hate the hell out of him if he were a Yankee.

shiznit2169

But he's not a Yankee so your argument is irrelevant. No ifs ands or buts!

IainDaniel

Sure it does = homer syndrome.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

min0 lee

I used to be a homer when I was younger.

Some guys are hard to root for.

I hated Vince Colemans guts when he played for the Mets.

Triple Threat

Actually Ortiz is a darker version of Adrian Adonis from the old WWF.

I Are Baboon

I think somebody slapped the "Goodnight Irene" on his bats.

min0 lee

In the academy award-winning classic Cocktail, Coughlin tells young Flanagan, "Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end." It's the single greatest yearbook quote ever. Hell, it may be the greatest movie quote ever. Either Coughlin was the Thoreau of bartending, or Thoreau the Coughlin of writing. One or the other.

We reached the "ending badly" point with David Ortiz five weeks ago. Remember in Superman II when Clark Kent gave up his superpowers so he could be with Lois Lane -- lesson No. 184 on how women ruin everything -- and then a bully beat the crap out of the suddenly mortal superhero in a diner? That's been Big Papi since Opening Day. What makes it stranger is that he still looks like Big Papi. Same bulky build. Same goofy beard. Same happy smile. Same batting stance. This isn't like the Ultimate Warrior returning after the then-WWF's first steroids scandal with a jarringly smaller physique. Everything looks the same with Ortiz, only Mario Mendoza has switched brains with him.
At first, we Sox fans thought we were just watching an early-season slump. Then three weeks passed and we started worrying. The guy couldn't hit the ball out of the infield. His bat was so slow he had to cheat on fastballs; even then, he couldn't catch up. One swing a night made him look like the drunkest batter in a beer league softball game. Look, I've seen slumps. This was different. This was the collapse of a career.

The steroid whispers started quickly. By late April, every conversation I had with a Sox fan seemed to include a "We need to mail Papi some HGH" joke. It was an easy leap for a couple of reasons: First, his power numbers leapt like Obama's Q rating from 2003 to 2007. Second, he's Dominican, and more than a few of his brethren -- Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada, Guillermo Mota -- have been in the center of PED controversies. Third, they sell steroids over the counter in the DR like they're Bubblicious. And fourth, baseball has reached a depressing point in which power hitters are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

When Manny Ramírez was suspended for trying to jump-start ovaries he didn't have, many Sox fans (including me) assumed we had our unhappy answer for Papi's demise. We braced for Ortiz to be linked to a bombshell headline that began with the words "Former Sox Clubhouse Attendant … " But one thing nagged at me: He wasn't belting bombs that were dying at the warning track like so many other former 'roiders. He just looked old. It reminded me of watching Jim Rice fall apart in the late '80s, when he lost bat speed overnight the way you and I lose a BlackBerry. That was painful too.

By mid-May, I was pondering another theory: Maybe Papi was older than he claimed. In Seth Mnookin's book Feeding the Monster, he recounts the story of how Boston nearly blew the chance to acquire Ortiz because they were concerned that he was much older than the media guide said. GM Theo Epstein asked Bill James to study Papi's numbers, and when James concluded the peaks and valleys were consistent with a man of Ortiz's stated age, they rolled the dice. The rest is history.

Well, what if James was wrong? How many Latin players have been exposed for lying about their ages in the past few years? Hell, one of Papi's best friends -- Tejada -- was found to have cut two years off his birth certificate when he was 17, er, 19 … you get the point. Watching Papi flounder now, I'd believe he's really 36 or 37 (not 33) before I'd believe PEDs are responsible. In a recent game in Minnesota, he couldn't catch up to an 89 mph fastball. Repeat: 89 mph!

That's what happens to beefy sluggers on their way out: Their knees go, they stiffen up, bat speed slows and, in the blink of an eye, they're done. Beefy sluggers are like porn stars, wrestlers, NBA centers and trophy wives: When it goes, it goes. You know right away.

So that's my theory. I think he's old(er). You may think something else. Whatever the case, it's clear that David Ortiz no longer excels at baseball. This has been banged home over and over again for two solid months. It's ruined the season for me thus far. The best way I can describe Fenway during any Papi at-bat is this: It's filled with 35,000 parents of the same worst kid in Little League who dread every pitch thrown in the kid's direction. There is constant fear and sadness and helplessness. Nobody knows what to do.

It's been a sports experience unlike anything I can remember. Red Sox fans refuse to turn against Ortiz. They just can't. They owe him too much for 2004 and 2007. It's like turning on Santa Claus or happy hour. Every Ortiz appearance is greeted with supportive cheers, every Ortiz failure is greeted with awkward silence. The fans are suffering just like he is. Only when he left 12 men on base against Anaheim on May 14 did I receive a slew of angry e-mails from back home, but even those tirades centered more around Terry Francona's steadfast refusal to drop Ortiz in the order. I cannot remember another Boston athlete stinking this long, and this fragrantly, without getting dumped on.

Really, that's a tribute to what he means to his fans and how delightful it was to watch him play. His career might be over (notice I left the door open; I'm such a sap), but Ortiz has reached the highest level an athlete can reach: unequivocal devotion. Sox fans love him the same way you love an ailing family member. In the end, at his bleakest point, he's brought out the best of an entire fan base. He has inspired dignity and emotion and loyalty. The fans could have sped his demise (and saved a few games) by booing until Francona benched him. They didn't. How often does that happen?

We live in a world in which all entertainment is chewed up and spat out. We milk public figures like cows, and when they're out of milk, we tip them over and move on. Quickly. It's not just that we need to see everything "jump the shark" that bothers me. It's also that so many of us are gleeful about pointing out that something or someone we once loved has outlived his usefulness. The demise of Big Papi played out in an old-school way: real devotion, and in the end, people refusing to let go.

Including me. I still watch every Ortiz at-bat thinking, This is the one. When he belted his first bomb of the season, I clapped like everyone else and pumped my fist. Yes! He's back! The Fenway crowd cheered as if it were Game 7, demanded a curtain call and showered him with love. This was the single strangest sports moment I've ever seen: Fans going absolutely bonkers for something that once was a routine act. Turned out, it was Papi's only homer of the first eight weeks. So it really was a curtain call. By May's end, Francona had dropped him to sixth in the order. Barring a miraculous return of bat speed, he'll be benched or released soon. It'll hurt, and I'm going to feel bad. I already do. Coughlin was right.