Ortiz has had plenty to smile about already this year.
When David Ortiz homered last Friday at Toronto, it gave him 13 long balls for
the season. Much has been made of Big Papi's big start, but there has been
almost no mention of the milestone he is quickly closing in on—400 home runs.
Ortiz now has 391 homers, and if he stays hot he may get the nine
he needs by the All-Star break. Yet no one seems to be paying much attention.
Back when Carl Yastrzemski reached the 400 mark for Boston in the
summer of 1979, all of Red Sox Nation and much of the baseball world was
carefully tracking his progress. A month-long "Yaz Watch" ensued
after homer No. 399, and Captain Carl finally got his big one off Oakland’s Mike Morgan at Fenway Park on
July 24. His 3000th hit came a few months later, making Yastrzemski just the
fourth major leaguer (joining Aaron, Mays, and Musial) to achieve both
distinctions.
Why the dramatic dip in interest this time around? Blame it on
steroids and expansion.
Yaz about to uncoil his 400th home run swing.
Yastrzemski was just the 18th major leaguer to hit 400 homers, and
when he did it the number was considered more or less a free ticket to the Hall
of Fame. Now, thanks in large part to weaker pitching and the huge uptick
in home runs during the steroid era (roughly 1990-2003),there are 48 members of
the 400 Club—with Ortiz and Adam Dunn of the White
Sox (currently at 382) hoping to make it an even 50 this year.
The achievement simply doesn't carry as much significance as it
once did, and it's too bad. Baseball is a game of numbers, and one of the more
magical numbers in the game has been diluted. But any way you look at it, it's
still a hell of an accomplishment.
Ortiz came to the Red Sox for the 2003 season with 58 lifetime
homers. In his first nine seasons with Boston, he averaged nearly 36 a season
(plus 12 more in the postseason). In 2006 he set a Red Sox season record with
54.
Yes, the New York Times reported in 2009
that Papi was on the infamous list of 104 MLB players
alleged to have tested positive for banned substances in a 2003 non-punitive
drug-testing survey. The league and Player's Association has disputed some
of the names on the list; however, and the list remains sealed. Papi himself
said he never knowingly took steroids—although he did apologize in an August
2009 press conference at Yankee Stadium for being "a little bit
careless" when purchasing legal vitamins and supplements.
His complete innocence remains unclear,
but Ortiz has never tested positive since more stringent testing went into
effect and remains one of the most productive and clutch sluggers in baseball. Whether or not he makes the Hall of Fame—and I'd put him on the
fence at this point—he deserves to get plenty of kudos as he approaches and
then hits homer No. 400.
The way Papi is going now, there will be plenty more to
come.
Big Papi's first 2012 blast came in the home opener on April 14.
