Old Man David Ortiz Destroyed the League on His Retirement Tour | Baseball Bits

David Ortiz aka Big Papi used his 40th birthday to announce that the 2016 would be his last. We had seen plenty of MLB Retirement Tours at that point, but this one was going to be special. Once the David Ortiz Final Season aka the David Ortiz retirement tour took off, so did his performance. That season, we saw a plethora of David Ortiz 2016 highlights. It was arguably the MLB best final season ever.

2016 turned into the Big Papi last season show, and with it came the exchange of many gifts. But in this episode of Baseball Bits, a Foolish Baseball production, I argue that the greatest gift of all was simply Ortiz's production. David Ortiz put down an incredible "old man" season, specifically the age of 40. That's right, 40 year old David Ortiz came through with a huge performance.

The 2016 Red Sox ended up making the playoffs, but lost to the Cleveland Indians in 3 games. Still, it set up for an emotional David Ortiz farewell at Fenway. That's still storybook in my eyes.

Another thing I speak about is the David Ortiz Twins years. Yes, before he starred in Boston, it was all about the Big Papi Minnesota days.

Enjoy!

[sneersh]

Favorite big Papi memory is him batting almost .700 in the 2013 world series. Man couldn't be stopped.

[meandtheboys]

''WHO PUT THIS PICTURE OF BARTOLO COLON IN MY BOB WICKMAN CALENDAR'' this is why I love this channel

[manmythmarcus]

Watch out and don’t mess with Ortiz. He’s a man and he’s 40.

[SoftBank]

I actually was there for Ichiro's final game at the Tokyo Dome. There was a man who sat next to me, in tears when Ichiro was substituted for. He had come from Seattle, and grew up watching Ichiro patrol right field. The former face of the Orix BlueWave was the player that made this gentleman a baseball fan.

I'm truly lucky to have seen Ichiro's final at bats. The place came alive when he stepped up to the plate. I can only imagine if the Tokyo Dome would still be standing right now if he had pulled a Ted Williams and hit a walk-off blast to win the game in his final AB.

[TheDCGuitar]

We almost lost that man. I was so happy to see him at this years World Series as energetic as ever after the hell he went through.

[exk]

As a Red Sox fan who was too young to really remember Ortiz's heroics in the '04 ALCS the most iconic memory of him for me is the grand slam he hit in the 8th inning of game 2 of the 2013 ALCS vs. the Tigers. The Red Sox were facing a 2-0 deficit against a great Tigers team but he hit it out and put them right back in the series.

[Il_Exile_lI]

That quote near the end from Ortiz about Rafael Devers being an MVP caliber player by age 22 sure was on point. In his age 22 season, Devers broke out in a big way with over 30 HR, 50 doubles, a .900+ OPS and earning some MVP votes.

[lorenzop]

The Boomer Stats vs Zoomer Stats killed me

[PadChennington]

the pokemon trading card gameboy music in the beginning... wow. what a jam

[TheJacobBlais]

4:56 is my only MLB game I went to. It was an amazing day. Not only did David steal a base, but Mookie went yard and price threw 8 innings.

[funguskim]

Pokémon tcg theme music. Ortiz in the background. Foolish baseball vid. Am I in heaven?

[gewignu]

At 9:34, Larry Walker and Tim Locastro
This is why I love Foolish Baseball

[dannybaseball]

talk about Ted Williams almost hitting 400 when he was 38 years old

[jarodarmstrong]

Yankees Lose”. Let him call the WS next year. Way better than Joe Buck.

[indigo]

There was an article after his retirement that revealed how badly his feet/knees were.

They were so mangled that it's amazing he was able to hit 48 doubles in 2016, let alone get to first base properly.

Also, criminally slept-on is how often David Ortiz would draw walks. Of course, his slow speed and sometimes bad lineup protection made it okay to put him on first base, but he walked a whole lot.

[swampede]

2016, I happened to get into little league in 6th grade. A little bit late to the party but still found that itch for baseball that I never would’ve seen. I live in a small northern New Hampshire town with about 2, 000 people, and I understandably turned to the Red Sox, as they’re the only team in New England. I went to 3 games that season and managed to catch Papi’s second to last homerun that season. Being 18 now and just reflecting back makes my soul happy.

[haydenpike]

Upon rewatching this video for the 100th time, it will always be funny to see JBJ up there for the April/May hitting stats. Dude was on fire to start that year.

[rayray]

"After six partial seasons in Minnesota, it wasn't really clear if he was actually that good at playing baseball" *shows him homering off of Pedro multiple times*

😂 loved that! I love the detail you put in these vids.

[BriggsSeekins]

I love retirement tours exactly because they are emotional moments in the sport. I like that Reggie Jackson and Jeter got standing ovations that one single time and were bitterly hated enemies every other time.

[nicolasepicness]

From that season into Cooperstown. Hell of a ride. Congrats Big Papi