David Ortiz Picking The Yankees To Win The American League East Was A Genius Move
Back-to-back American League East division titles. Who gives a FUCK about back-to-back division titles when the end result has twice been getting bounced in the first round? All this talk about who’s going to win the division this year between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Fuck a division. I want a World Series title. And in order to win a World Series title, something’s gotta change. The Red Sox, over the last two years, have simply not been good enough to win a World Series. I know that. You know that. But do they know that?
Boston has, however, been good enough to be considered the favorites to win the World Series prior to a season as recently as last year. That literally means nothing other than the wise guys in Vegas recognize that the talent is certainly in place, but is the hunger there? Is the desire there? Is the drive there? Is the ability to sack up there? Over the last couple years, this group has made the answers to those questions abundantly clear. No.
They’ve got a new manager, a new slugger, and a new divisional foe. He goes by the name of Giancarlo Stanton, bringing his MLB-leading 59 homer season from a year ago over to the Bronx to tack onto the Yankees’ already MLB-leading home run total from 2017. Because of this, David Ortiz, the living legend himself, has said that it’s the Yankees, not the Red Sox, who are the team to beat in the American League East.
Although he is strongly encouraged by the addition of designated hitter J.D. Martinez — and the team’s back-to-back division titles — Ortiz believes the Yankees are the ones to beat in 2018.
“They pretty much stacked the lineup with more power,” he said. “I don’t think anyone else in the division can compete with that.”
YES, Papi! YES! (That’s what your mom said.)
Is it outlandish to pick the Yankees to win the American League East this year? Absolutely not. It’s not outlandish to pick the Red Sox, either, but this team needed a kick in the ass after the way they’ve performed in October the last two years. They needed a threat. They needed someone or something to come in and tell them that they’re not as good as they think they are, that winning back to-back division titles doesn’t mean shit when that’s as far as you go, and that you are nothing until you win in October. Who better to deliver that message than David Ortiz himself?
The most recent Red Sox championship teams have always been at their best when their backs were against the wall. The 2004 Red Sox overcame being down three games to none in the American League Championship Series, the 2007 Red Sox overcame being down three games to one in the American League Championship Series, and the 2013 Red Sox were an island of misfit toys who came together in the face of adversity.
What is there to overcome when you’re the odds-on favorite to win the World Series before you even play a single game? The 2018 Red Sox needed something to overcome. They needed a mountain to climb. The Yankees getting within a game of the World Series last October and then adding the National League MVP on top of that the following winter, leading to David Ortiz himself picking that same Yankee team to win the division over the defending American League East champion Red Sox? That’s something to overcome. That’s adversity. That’s doubt coming from the outside from credible sources.
There’s only one thing left to do now — prove everybody wrong.
Also, this is the real reason why David Ortiz picked the Yankees: