But this wasn't the mortal sin committed by Ortiz as he attempts, rather successfully, to ignore baseball before the year 2004.
No, Ortiz decided to spit on Red Sox and baseball history just a bit more by claiming, "There will never be another Ted Williams, but Adrian Gonzalez is close."
Sox fans everywhere should be crying, OUTRAGE! BLASPHEMY! SACRILEGE!
This week, Ortiz was at it again.
Clearly trying to irk Yanks fans everywhere, the title of his latest post reads, "2011 Red Sox Will Challenge 1927 Yankees for Title of Greatest Team in Major League History."
OUTRAGE! BLASPHEMY! SACRILEGE!
I need to hand this one to Ortiz: his ploy to prod the already frustrated Yankees fan base worked wonders, at least in the case of this Cranky Yankee Fan. Once I finished cleaning my room from tossing every movable object around in pure outrage and shock, I looked up the numbers from that '27 Yankees team:
- 110-44 record.
- Swept the Pirates in the World Series.
- Four pitchers with 18 or more wins.
- Team ERA of 3.20 and WHIP of 1.30.
- Team BA of .307.
- Murders' Row lineup that featured (in order of plate appearances): Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Tony Lazzeri, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, Joe Dugan, and Pat Collins.
In his ode to awful ideas, Ortiz essentially equates Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis to Combs, Gehrig, Ruth and Lazzeri.
By the way, those Yankee stat lines, in case you (or Ortiz) wanted to look at -- oh I don't know -- actual performance?
Combs: .356/.414/.511, 6 HR, 64 RBI, 15 SB
Gehrig: .373/.474/.765, 47 HR, 175 RBI
Ruth: .356/.486/.772, 60 HR, 164 RBI
Lazzeri: .309/.383/.482, 18 HR, 102 RBI, 22 SB
If we toss in Meusel for good measure, that adds a none-too-pedestrian .337/.393/.510, 8 HR, 103 RBI, 24 SB.
I almost hate myself for needing to point this out. By arguing against this NESN blogger's homer hogwash, I almost dignify the idea that the 2011 Red Sox would compete with the 1927 Yankees for alleged "best team ever". But this had to be said -- it's too ridiculous a claim (ESPECIALLY before they've even won the World Series...OR EVEN REPORTED TO CAMP!).
The Ortiz blog on NESN.com is called "Instant Opinion."
I think it should be re-named "Instant Coffee." As in, crap.
And now, the Rundown...please save me from this insanity, Other Red Sox/Yankees News. Sigh...
- The Yankees remain ahead of the Sox in ticket demand, according to this article by the Boston Herald.
- The always-entertaining and informative Yankee U blog subscribes to the credo of Axl Rose: Patience.
- MLB.com offers a list of league 2011 Resolutions, and equates Burnett to Beckett.
You can't argue with the individual statistics of the guys like Ruth and Gehrig. They're downright absurd. BUT a team is 25 guys, not just the statistics of its 5 best players. What would the Red Sox, or any team for that matter, have to accomplish in this era of baseball in order to surpass the '27 Yanks? At least 116 wins and a World Series title, but what else?
ReplyDeleteBefore the Sox ever even shared a locker room, this NESN writer made that claim. As such, you have to look at individual stats. You can't look at them and immediately predict they'll be the next 1998 Yanks, where individual stats didn't matter as much as the team playing well together.
ReplyDeleteThe '11 Sox would need to dominate both sides of the game just as much as the Yanks did from an individual standpoint and a team standpoint. That's part of what made them so great - amazing stats by players and an amazingly dominant team. No A-Rod's of the Texas days to be had - they all played well and they won...and rather easily too.
It's also tough to name any modern team the BEST EVER without letting them sit for awhile in the history books. The '27 Yanks have a certain nostalgia and prestige to them because of where they fit in baseball history, which is a vital part of any baseball discussion, more so than in other sports.