Jay-Z Sues David Ortiz: Kicks Him While He's Down

Let's face it, David Ortiz hasn't had the best two weeks of his life.

He's batting .143 which has caused the media and fans to jump all over him; They want him benched, they want him traded, they want to tear the big guy down. In response Ortiz hasn't been himself off the diamond either, lashing out at the media.

If things weren't bad enough...Jay-Z is suing him for $5M for allegedly stealing the name of his nightclubs.

(photo courtesy of the AP)

Nothing like kicking a man when he's down, huh?

The Iconic rap mogul has a series of clubs in the US and Tokyo called 40/40. The clubs name is supposed to be a shout-out to the exclusive club of MLB players who have hit 40 HRs and stolen 40 bases in a single season. Any true baseball fan would realize Ortiz is not one of them. While Papi went deep more than 40 times in each of the seasons from 2004-2006, according to Baseball-Reference.com in his 14 years in MLB he's only stolen a total of 10 bases.

Anyway, Ortiz has a club in Santa Domingo named Forty-Forty and Jay-Z thinks he's trying to capitalize off his success. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Papi is one of the Dominican's most recognizeable figures. He could have opened a club down there called "This Place Sucks" and I'm sure it would become a huge success. I don't honestly think he was trying to ride Jay's coat-tails.

At the same time, why would Ortiz even tread on that naming territory when he could have named his club anything? Bad advice from his management team? Who knows?

I'm really getting sick of all of this negative talk and attention surrounding Papi. We're two weeks into the season...give it a rest. I mean the Twin Cities can still stand behind the big guy, why can't we?

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Getting Excited For Baseball

Seeing these 2010 baseball commercials have surely fired me up for the baseball season.

In this ESPN Sunday Night Baseball clip, Buchholz and actor Adam Scott sing along to Sweet Caroline and try and get Yankees outfielder, Nick Swisher involved too. He wants nothing to do with it. So what does Buchholz do? He continues to sing along by himself. And he can actually carry a tune (not sure why this surprises me, but it does!) I've never been a huge fan of Buchholz, but this makes me like the guy a little.

Then there are the NESN spots that my friend Susan Mahoney told me about. The first one kind of cracks me up. Orsillo is trying to explain how to navigate around Boston to John Lackey. It has often made me comment out-loud that 95/128 are the same road (in some spots) and that 95S turns into 93N....it's just confusing. Even to those of us who grew up in MA.



This last video, however, has got to be my favorite. A (real) Yankees fan walks into a barber shop talking smack...until he sees the likes of Papi, Tek, Wake and Paps. It's great.



What about you? Which is your favorite? What is getting you fired up for the baseball season?

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David Ortiz Wins 4th Consecutive Silver Slugger Award

The Silver Slugger Award is an offensive award, which can be compared to the defensive Gold Glove award. The award is based on a combination of offensive statistics including Batting Average, OBP and slugging percentage as well as coaches and managers perception of a player's overall value to the offense of their team.

2007 marks the 4th straight Year David Ortiz has been honored with the American League Silver Slugger Award for the DH position.

All year long Papi has been battling the critics who said he's too hurt to play, or isn't playing as well as past years. While he may not of had as many homeruns as previous seasons, this proves his offensive value had just as much impact to the World Series Champs (I love writing that!)

"I would say, personally, this is one of my best offensive years here in Boston, all the way around," said Ortiz, who finished with a career-high and AL-best on-base percentage of .445, along with 35 homers and 117 RBIs. "I think [if] you look at my numbers this year ... I put it together more than some of the other seasons when people think I had a good season."

So there you have it.

I think it's also important to point out these six players who achieved the highest honor of both a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award.

• Ichiro Suzuki (OF, Seattle)
• Placido Polanco (2B, Detriot)
• Jimmy Rollins (SS, Philadelphia)
• Russel Martin (C, LA Dodgers)
• Carlos Beltran (OF, NY Mets)
• David Wright (3B, NY Mets)
  

Congrats to all!

Here is a running tally of awards won by the 2007 Red Sox

• Kevin Youkilis, Gold Glove
• David Ortiz, Silver Slugger

The rest of the awards will be announced on the following schedule:

Nov. 12: AL and NL Rookies of the Year
Nov. 13: AL Cy Young
Nov. 14: AL and NL Managers of the Year
Nov. 15: NL Cy Young
Nov. 19: AL MVP
Nov. 20: NL MVP

I do think we'll be picking a few of these up!

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Hot Stove Burning Hotter

To quote the Dave Matthews Band "So much to say, so much to say, so much to say, so much to say"

I literally could have created a separate blog posting for each one of the following items, but it wasn't meant to be today.

Let's start with a little something I like to call The Demise of the Evil Empire

(photo courtesy of Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Joe Torre, is officially a memeber of the LA Dodgers. I've always liked Torre and am happy to say I like him a WHOLE lot more when he's not wearing pinstripes. He's being paid $14 million for three seasons, which keeps him as the highest paid manager in MLB. It's not only Torre who left the Evil Empire for the Dodgers but also former Yankee coaches Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa.

In other Stankee news, Andy Pettitte declined his $16 million option to pitch for the next season. It would have been better if he said it was because he was taking his arm elsewhere, but at 34 years old he has said he's not even sure if he's returing to baseball at all. He has said before if he pitches again it will be for the Yankees and nobody else, but I also seem to remember a certain Judas Damon saying he'd never go to the Yankees. Basically, take his words for what they're worth right now.

So far we know Bobby Abreau will be returing to the Yanks - it will be interesting to see where everyone ends up. I'm most anticipating the news about Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Johnny Damon. Oh - right - and that AFraud guy too, as long as it's not in Boston!

Now onto the Good Guys!

It's been widely publicized already today, but Curt Schilling and the Red Sox did reach a one year agreement for the old bloody sock to stay with the Sox and finish his career here in Boston. According to Schilling's blog:

The deal looks like this.
$8 million in guaranteed base salary
$2 million in bonuses for 6 seperate weigh ins.
I inserted the weigh in clause in the 2nd round of offers, counter offers. Given the mistakes I made last winter and into Spring Training I needed to show them I recognized that, and understood the importance of it. Being overweight and out of shape are two different things. I also was completely broad sided by the fact that your body doesn’t act/react the same way as you get older. Even after being told that for the first 39 years of my life. Now I can’t get on Dougie anymore, which sucks, and I am sure the clause will add 15-100 more jokes to Tito’s Schilling joke
book.
$3 million in IP incentives based on IP totals.
$1 million for receiving a Cy Young vote, any vote

Not bad old man, not bad at all. I also have to point out how much I love the fact Schill signed off his post with the SIGN MIKE LOWELL!!!!! chant!

The next piece of excellent news is that Kevin Youkilis became a first-time Gold Glove winner today. He definitely deserves it because during the regular season he made no errors in 1,080 chances and had 990 putouts. CONGRATS YOOOOOOUUUUUUKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!

And finally, Papi had his arthroscopic knee surgery today. RSN, lets wish him well for a speedy and successful recovery!

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David Ortiz is the face of MLB

..well not yet, but he should be. He made it as the face of the Red Sox, but now ESPN wants you rank the face of each franchise in baseball and determine who best represents the entire sport.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/listranker?id=731

Right now Papi is in 3rd ranked behind Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols. I can't disagree - those two guys are amazing but as a proud member of RSN I want to see Papi in the first position! So I'm not (maybe subtly) suggestion you rank those other guys lower and Papi higher to help his cause, but vote and vote how you feel the rankings really are.

However, I beg of you - please rank Barry Bonds last. I mean seriously. Can you imagine if he's voted as the face of the MLB? How wrong would that be? As it is, he's ranked third! SICK!

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This Day in Red Sox History

Monday, January 22, 2003

On January 22, 2003 David Ortiz signed as a free agent with the Red Sox. Big Papi, as he is so affectionately called by members of RSN, came to the team along with two other free agents, Bill Mueller and Kevin Millar. Of the three, Papi is the only one still with the organization.

He’s also known as “Mr. Clutch” - any Sox fan should know why! According to Boston.com:

In three seasons with the Sox, David Ortiz has 15 walkoff hits, including nine walkoff homers. Last year he received a plaque from the Sox that read “David Ortiz #34 The Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox.”

For the past two years Papi has been a serious American League MVP candidate. In 2005 he lost to A-Fraud, after significant debates. The feeling was, since he is DH and not on the field all of the time, he doesn’t contribute as much to the game as a position player. 2006 was a different story for Papi, although he broke the Red Sox single season home run record (previously held by Jimmie Foxx), The Sox failed and therefore nobody expected M.V.Papi to take home the prize. It was awarded to Minnesota Twins player, Justin Morneau.

Do you agree a DH shouldn’t take home the MVP prize? I mean to me an MVP means a player who has provided the most value to his team. Pitchers have their own version of MVP, the Cy Young award. So what award does the DH get? Nothing? How wrong is that? Especially for a guy (like Ortiz) who has FANTASTIC stats? There aren’t enough words to talk about all of his accolades or what he’s brought as both a player and a person to RSN. He’s an MVP in my book.

This day in RSH (Red Sox History) proved to be a significant one, indeed!!!

Show your support of this Boston All-Star by picking up one of these kick-@ss shirts from theredseat.com

(No, they didn’t pay me to say that! They just happen to be my favorite site for Red Sox Apparel and related merchandise because everything they have is so unique! In fact, my ‘This Day in Red Sox History’ facts come from their Red Sox Calendar!)

(Photo taken by me at Fenway Park on 10-01-06)

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