Showing posts with label god. Show all posts
Showing posts with label god. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

How It's Made: Anatomy of a Papi HR

I like a Discover Channel show called How It's Made. It shows how things are made. Since they don't often do episodes on the Red Sox, here's how a David Ortiz home run comes into our lives.

We start with Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be Papi: and there was Papi.
And God saw the Papi, that it was good: and God divided the Papi from the darkness.

With Papi in the picture, we move far forward in time, to the 1970s or 1980s, when two people (most likely in America, Latin America, or Asia) fall deeply in love and have a baby boy. The boy will grow up to be a pitcher. Examples of pitchers include Johan Santana and Josh Fogg.

Our next stop is the forest, where we will need to find a tree with which to make a bat, to redirect the baseball into the stands. We find our ash tree on the top of a hill and cut it down, forging it into a bat shape using a common woodworking tools and sandpaper. We will also burn the name "David Ortiz" into the bat to ensure it is the one used in a home run.

Finally, we will need a baseball. For this, we will need a rubber ball and a machine to bind it tightly with white yarn. When this is done, we will need a cow to be eliminated, and its sweet hide wrapped around the taut ball. We will use the remainder of the cow to create a glove for the pitcher.

Once you have the necessary materials, all you need is a professional major league baseball park, of which there are 30 in North America. Locate the pitcher's mound, have the pitcher throw the ball, and this will be the result:


Sunday, March 9, 2008

2008 Preview: God

Name: David Americo Ortiz
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Age: 32, but irrelevant
2008 Salary: Not enough
Fun Fact: Is the greatest baseball player ever.

I own several years' worth of Baseball Prospectus books. Let's take a look into the past and get a sneak peak at part of David Ortiz' 2000 entry:

The organization's litmus test to see if they want to get better in a hurry or just do things their way. Ortiz is accused of having an attitude, and he catches flak for bad glovework and his weight. Ullger says he's gotten into bad habits at the plate: he had been pitched outside for so long that he wasn't adjusting to anything inside in the majors, diving across the plate without keeping his head or hands still.

I just got this year's book, and the Ortiz entry reads, in it entirety:

Do not taunt this man. You will die.

Of course you will. The mere suggestion that David Ortiz is anything other than a primordial God, borne of all the powers of the universe is, frankly, insulting. And dangerous. He sees all and hears all.

So do not pitch him inside. Or outside. Or over the plate. It does not matter. 209 Red Sox home runs, 143 game-winning hits, 10 million people met and hugged, at least two World Series titles (Who knows? There could have been more we weren't aware of), one David Ortiz.

As we head into another year of Papi-fueled domination, let us say a prayer for all the opposing pitchers and baseballs that will be disposed between now and November. (Message!)

Hit 'em up, Papi.


Faloomp! Like wow.

David Ortiz' 2008 PECOTA projection:
.282 AVG/.402 OBP/.541 SLG
109 Runs
158 Hits
38 Doubles
600 Home Runs
119 RBI
111 BB
79 K
Okay, 35 Home Runs
And the Prospectus thing does not say that.