I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But David Ortiz is not walking back through that door.
If he did, he’d probably pick up right where he left off. Unfortunately, it’s just not happening. I don’t care what Pedro Martinez tweets.
On Monday night at 10:30 p.m., the former Red Sox ace tweeted, “Big Papi is working out, and I know he is in baseball shape, and the RedSox could use a bit of his bat.”
Stating the time is relevant here because at 11:14 p.m., Pedro then tweeted, “I didn’t say David is making a come back, I said David is in baseball shape because he works out, and the team could use a swing or two.”
Don’t get me wrong, everything that Pedro said in his first tweet was true. I trust him on the “working out” stuff, and for sure, the Boston Red Sox could use his bat.
It’s just that, the very next day, the organization sent out an email about new ticket plans which include tickets to “David Ortiz’s #34 retirement ceremony.”
I realize that Big Papi has a flair for the dramatic, but I don’t expect him to show up to his pregame retirement ceremony on June 23, grab the microphone, and say, “I’m baaack.”
Not only do I not expect that, but neither does the Red Sox organization.
I recently went back and listened to what Sox president Sam Kennedy had to say about Ortiz’s retirement on my podcast, when he joined me in-studio on Nov. 30, nearly two months after the season was complete.
I asked him, “Just to make it official, he is done, right? Ortiz is done?”
Kennedy responded, “He is done. He has told us he’s done. He’s got these two heels, this bursitis. They don’t call it the Achilles for nothing. He’s been playing hurt for so long, which makes what he did [in 2016] even more incredible.”
He continued, “There’s been no conversation. He officially filed his retirement papers. So, he’s done. But it hurts me to say that because I’ve only been a part of the Red Sox — other than 2002 when it was my first year here — every other year we’ve had David in the middle of that lineup, and we’re going to miss him.”
He was right. The Red Sox do miss him. And it would be awesome if Ortiz did grab the mic at Fenway and announce his return.
But this isn’t the WWE. Ortiz isn’t The Rock and Kennedy isn’t Vince McMahon.
So I don’t think the president of the Red Sox is hiding something when he says it’s over. And if the retirement ceremony is still on — which it is — then you can stop praying for Ortiz’s glorious return. Because it’s just not going to happen. I don’t care what Pedro tweets.
As superhuman as pro athletes may sometimes seem, we forget that these guys can feel pain just like the rest of us. And Kennedy’s comments were a reminder as to just how much of a toll the game was taking on Ortiz’s body.
The guy could still produce if he wanted to. He just doesn’t want to deal with the daily physical anguish that went along with it anymore. That was true at the end of last season. And it remains true to this day.
So I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but if the Red Sox are going to win a World Series in 2017 and beyond, they’ll have to do it without Big Papi.
And you can tell Pedro to retweet that.
