Why David Ortiz has more in common with Sandy Koufax than Ted Williams

What's this .097 hitter have in common with Ortiz?

He's not a pitcher, he's not a Dodger, but the final months of David Ortiz's career are more closely mirroring those of Sandy Koufax than Ted Williams.

Long before Ortiz hit his 522nd lifetime home run on July 1 to pass the total hit by Williams, people were linking the two Red Sox icons. No less an authority than Carl Yastrzemski has called them the two greatest players in franchise history, and all but die-hard Yaz fans would agree.

When it comes to swan songs, however, the comparisons don't measure up. Ted played his final year for a moribund Red Sox team that finished 7th in the American League, and his 29 homers and .316 average meant nothing beyond padding his Hall of Fame statistics. He gave fans some final thrills at age 42 -- including, famously, a bullpen blast in his last at-bat -- but the Fenway stands that day and many others were largely empty.

Pressure? For Williams, in 1960, there was none.

Less than 11,000 saw Ted's last HR live.

Ortiz is playing under far different circumstances. The Red Sox near the All-Star break in the thick of the AL East and Wild Card races, meaning each Big Papi hit -- even, in one memorable case, a game-saving triple -- has far more importance. On a team filled with budding superstars, it is still Ortiz opposing pitchers fear most in crunch time. Fenway is regularly jammed to capacity with demanding Boston fans.

Whereas Williams was truly a lion in winter during his final season, emerging from hibernation to accumulate just 310 at-bats, Ortiz is playing nearly every day and leads the AL in OPS. True, he has yet to take the field on defense, but what he's doing at the plate is still remarkable for a 40-year-old. One could make a strong argument that Big Papi has been the league MVP over the first half-sesaon, and he is slated to start at DH for the AL in next week's All-Star Game.

It's enough to make a guy change his mind about retirement, but Ortiz insists that won't be the case. He is too proud and too smart to chance playing one year too long and leaving fans with a less-then-flattering image of a .220, 12-homer campaign. Plus, in addition to the normal aches that can hamper a ballplayer of his age and size, he has severe pain in his feet  that clubhouse onlookers confirm he hides behind his gregarious persona.

Here's where Koufax comes in.

Fifty years ago, the Dodgers hurler dubbed "The Left Hand of God" faced his own physical challenges. Although the he was just 30 in 1966, Koufax's arthritic left elbow caused him constant pain on and off the mound. His arm remained bent at a 22.5-degree angle between starts, and he had suits specially tailored to hide the deformity, Doctors warned him that he could permanently damage his arm by continuing to hurl 300 innings a year.

Koufax on ice -- a common occurrence in '66. 

But, like this year's Red Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers of '66 were a contending team -- in fact, the defending World Series champs -- in a tight pennant race. There were other strong players on the club, and two future Hall of Fame pitchers in Don Drysdale and rookie Don Sutton behind him in the rotation, but Sandy was clearly the star. As with Ortiz, nobody performed better when the pressure was greatest.

This stayed true down the stretch in '66. The pain never lessened, but Koufax kept winning -- going 8-2 with an 1.78 ERA and 8 complete games in his final 11 starts. On the last day of the season, with the National League championship on the line, he beat Phillies ace Jim Bunning with a 10-strikeout performance on two days rest.

In addition to helping the Dodgers to the World Series, where they lost to Baltimore, Koufax led the league in wins (at 27-9), ERA (1.73), strikeouts (317), Bar Mitzvah invitations, and marriage proposals. He won his third Cy Young Award in four years, and only a career season from Roberto Clemente denied Sandy NL MVP honors as well.

Then, shocking the sports world, Koufax walked away. In a hastily called press conference, he stated that "I've got a lot of years to live after baseball and I would like to live them with the complete use of my body."

There will be no such surprise announcement from Ortiz. Everybody knows he is retiring. But, like Koufax, and unlike Williams, Big Papi is doing so on a team that could very well be playing important games in September -- and maybe October.

In the end, that's far more important than any home run.

Will Ortiz's last season also end with bunting?

Pedro Persevered -- and Sox Hope his Pupils Can Too

Pedro talks, and pupils listen.

News Flash: Pedro once struggled.

One of the delights of Red Sox spring training this year has been the return of former ace-turned-special instructor Pedro Martinez. In addition to working with young and veteran pitchers on their mechanics, Pedro has been a media darling -- smiling his way through numerous radio, TV, and print interviews.

Of all the sound bytes and quotes, however, the one that struck me as the most poignant has been largely ignored. During an early-morning interview on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show on Feb. 19, Martinez was asked by Gerry Callahan if he thought he could help Daniel Bard regain his form as one of baseball's best setup men. "Yes," the future Hall of Famer said, before adding that he understood exactly what Bard had gone through during a disastrous 2012 campaign that included a demotion to the minor leagues.

Martinez, the Sandy Koufax of his era, relate to an epic slump? How could that be?

As a young Expo, Martinez doubted his abilities.

It was during his early career, Martinez said, and he was struggling as a starting pitcher with the Montreal Expos. He went to manager Felipe Alou and told him he didn't think he could cut it as a big-leaguer.

"Felipe said, 'Are you quitting?' and I said, 'No, I just don't feel I'm performing at the level I should,'" Martinez told Callahan and WEEI listeners. 

Pedro didn't specify exactly when the exchange took place, but looking at his career stats on baseball-reference.com, I figure it was most likely 1996, when Martinez endured a two-month stretch in which he went 3-5 with an ERA above 5.00 and appeared headed to a sub-.500 record for the season. 

In the midst of his travails, Martinez explained, came an incident that as he described it sounded like something out of "The Natural" or "Field of Dreams." 

Tommy Harper: Sage advice saves an ace.

"I was sitting down on the bench after a game, and [coach] Tommy Harper came up and sat down with me," related Martinez. "He said, 'You know what? The game's over.' I said, 'Yeah...' and he said, 'You know, I always come and sit here and listen to the organ after the game. The game is over, but the organ continues to play.'

"I said, 'What do you mean by that?' and [Harper] said, 'I know you're not having the best time right now, but do you know how it goes away? Just keep pitching.' I thought about it and said, 'But I'm struggling so bad I don't even want to pitch,' and he said, 'Just keep pitching. It will go away.'"

Martinez listened to Harper's advice, finished the year 13-10, and in 1997 led the National League with a 1.90 ERA -- starting his Koufaxian seven-year stretch with Montreal and Boston as the MLB's best pitcher. Harper saw much of it up close, first with the Expos and later as a Red Sox coach.

"That's baseball," Martinez told Callahan. "Everybody goes through a little funk sometimes, and he [Bard] is having one of those."

Bard follows the master.

So how can Martinez help Bard and other Red Sox pitchers rebound from last year's disaster? Pedro said that he has a good eye for mechanics, and believes he'll know when a tweak to a hurler's delivery may make a difference. This is what he did during his own career, closely watching great pitchers like Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux in developing his own physical and mental repertoire.

"I'm a combination of everything," Martinez explained. "I took a little bit of pretty much everyone and used it to build my own experience. I hope they do that the same way."

Perhaps John Lackey, coming back from a year off after Tommy John surgery, can also pick up a thing or two from Martinez. In the midst of his string of domination, Pedro suffered a torn rotator cuff in 2001 and missed half of that season. He returned the next year as more of a control artist than a flamethrower and still went 20-4 while leading the American League in ERA and strikeouts.

"I was a student," Martinez told the Boston Globe in another interview. "I wasn't just gifted. I had to study a lot."

Once the student, now the teacher.

If Lackey, Bard, and other pitchers on the Sox staff can listen to their new teacher as well as Martinez did to mentors like Harper, Pedro's hiring may be one of the best moves the Red Sox made this offseason.