Red Sox fans calm down about Ortiz...

Big Papi is done. I said it. So we can all calm down about how could he fall off like this? What's wrong? I can tell you. He went back to normal. The Twins didn't just give up on him for no reason.


Look, his best year in Minnesota he hit .272 with 20 home runs and an on-base percentage of .339 and 87 strikeouts. Decent numbers but nothing hall of fame worthy like I have been hearing people intimate. Added with the fact he is a defensive liability and it shows Ortiz is an average player through his first 6 seasons.

The next 5 in Boston he became well above average putting in some serious numbers and driving the Sox to multiple World Series titles. I can admit he was a beast but that was his prime and guess what, it's over. It's just over. He is nowhere near as good as Mo Vaughn or Frank Thomas were to start their careers and has fallen off back to his normal self over the past 2. Nothing surprising here to me, just the natural track of a player like him. He's a great guy so we want him to be successful, but he isn't great as a player. Let it go.

What Matters...to Reporters

I was watching Around the Horn and the panel was talking about steroids in baseball again and Manny Ramirez visitng the Dodgers. During the discussion, it was mentioned that fans don't care about steroids in baseball anymore. The panelists however, all maintained that they wanted to see Manny sit and answer questions about his steroid use (alleged) for a half an hour at the least in order to feel like they have contrition from Manny. I have two problems with that.

Number one, if the fans feel this is no longer an issue, why are you going to try and force us to really care about this? No one is really crying because some dude went and got some roids and we still want to see the games. The issue is done. Why do these journalists need to try and get every detail of steroid use. They can't figure out how it happens? It is pretty well documented.

Then there is this idea that he must feel contrite or sorry for what he did. He doesn't. He knew what he was doing and is dealing with the consequences. This idea that we have to apologize to your level of satisfaction has to stop. To be holding on to the "issue" until you feel someone has personally come and kissed your feet is a terribly selfish idea and as a journalist, you need to move beyond your own personal need for justification and report the story as is and not make the story yourself.