Take a moment. Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Achieve a semblance of mindfulness.
David Ortiz: New York Yankee?
Got it? Now begin to construct an image, inch by inch and beginning with his baseball shoes, of David Ortiz -- The Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox -- wearing Yankee pinstripes.
Delicious, isn’t it? And a little crazy, too?
Yeah, probably. Granted, there is this:
"That's something I gotta think about," Ortiz said in an interview with ESPN's Colleen Dominguez. "I've been here on the Red Sox a long time, and I've seen how everything goes down between these two ballclubs.
"It's great (playing from the Yankees) from what I hear. It's a good situation to be involved in. Who doesn't want to be involved in a great situation where everything goes the right way?"
--snip--
"There's too much drama (in Boston), man," Ortiz told Dominguez. "There's too much drama. I have been thinking about a lot of things. I don't know if I want to be part of this drama for next year.
Now, it should be said here that where Ortiz plays next year really isn’t his choice. Not if he wants to be paid, anyway; the Red Sox have a $12.5-million option for his services in 2012. And while they could cobble together 700 DH plate appearances without him, he was worth $12.5 million this season and will probably be worth $12.5 million next season. So I don’t think the Red Sox are going to let him play anywhere else. Let alone in New York.
Would the Yankees even want him, though? Sure, his swing would play well in Yankee Stadium. But with Jesus Montero apparently the Yankees' DH in waiting, it's not likely that Brian Cashman will be falling all over himself, trying to add Ortiz to the roster. George Steinbrenner would have immensely enjoyed such a move, but these are the new Yankees and they manage with their heads rather than their hearts (or their guts).
So all this is fun to think about, and does speak to the dysfunctionality that seems to have struck the Red Sox.
But if you want to see Big Papi in pinstripes, close your eyes again. Because that’s probably as close as you’re going to get.
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