The David Ortiz Factor

In 2002 when David Ortiz was released by the Minnesota Twins there were voices in the Yankees’ organization that thought that he would be a great addition. However the vision of David Ortiz in pinstripes did not prevail, primarily because the Yankees had already signed the great Jason Giambi and because Ortiz was not the same kind of proven commodity.

It might be the biggest Yankee mistake in a long time, since Giambi was a non-factor in 2004 while Ortiz was a major player in the amazing comeback the Red Sox mounted to oust the Yankees in the League Championship Series last year. Now with just a few weeks left in 2005 the Yankees are hoping that Ortiz won’t be key in blocking them from the playoffs this season.

The Red Sox and their fans, and particularly David Ortiz, are hoping for that Ortiz leads the Sox to the promised land once again. As of last night the Yankees are no longer on the outside of the playoffs and looking in. They are .5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the division race and 1.5 games out the Wild Card behind the Cleveland Indians. Right now these are all races that look like they will come down to the wire.

The wire for the Yankees and Red Sox is a three game set at Fenway the last weekend of the season, and if those games mean anything then David Ortiz is likely to at the center of it all. Ortiz is the Yankee killer, and one of the game’s best clutch hitters to boot. This year against the Yankees he’s had 63 at bats with 8 extra base hits (5 homers, 3 doubles), 17 RBIs and 14 runs scored and a .286 average - numbers reminiscent of his play during the 2004 LCS, where he gained his reputation as a Yankee killer (his stats .387-3-11 in 31 at bats).

Of course last year the Red Sox faced a very different Yankee team. That was a Yankee team with solid pitching, a stellar offence and had the swagger and confidence of a team which knew that they could not be beaten, at least not by that team from Boston.

11 months later that swagger is gone. The Red Sox not only beat the Yankees, but pulled off the greatest upset in baseball history on their path to becoming World Champions. The vaunted Bronx staff that was supposed to be even better this year has been less than inspiring and the offense while still potentially one of the best in the game is not quite as good as it was expected to be.

For a change the Yankees aren’t coasting into October, they are sweating it out with just 10 games to go and the potential to miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Fans in Boston, Cleveland and New York are biting their nails and finding themselves riveted to their computers and television watching not just their home team but the scoreboard in the hope that the numbers are flowing the right way.

It has been a long time since there was this kind of excitement in an American League race. Because the Yankees and Red Sox always seem to finish neck and neck at the end of each season the idea of the Wild Card contender coming from the Central or Western division feels rather novel.

Now that seems it really could happen, and the team left in the cold could be the New York Yankees with their $208 million payroll. Some would call that poetic justice, others would call it a travesty, but there are still ten days for which the Yankees will have to hold on.

To win the Wild Card the Yankees would have to overcome the Indians, who have the softest schedule of all contending teams (They have 3 games with the White Sox, 4 with KC, and 3 against the Devil Rays) and they could even steal their division from the White Sox.

But that doesn’t mean the Yankees are anywhere near done. Both the Bombers and BoSox play their remaining games within the division, with the BoSox drawing the Blue Jays and Orioles, and the Yankees playing against Baltimore, the Blue Jays before the Sox and Yanks wrap up against each other at Fenway Sept 30 in a three game set.

It’s not hard to imagine these two teams meeting a week or so from now with virtually identical records going into that series, the fans on the edge of their seats and David Ortiz coming to bat. You have to wonder what those voices will be saying then.