Well, this certainly doesn't fall under the heading of surprising baseball news:
Big Papi went off during his sit-down with the media today when asked about his feelings on rule changes aimed at improving pace of play, specifically the new rule that hitters must keep one foot in the batter's box between pitches, unless an established exception occurs.
"It seems like every rule goes in the pitcher's favor," Ortiz said in an expletive-filled rant. "After a pitch, you got to stay in the box? One foot? I call that bull%#@$".
Big Papi made it clear he's not stepping out for show.
"When you come out of the box, you're thinking about what the guy is trying to do," Ortiz said. "I'm not walking around just because there are cameras all over the place and I want my buddies back home to see me."
I'll resist the urge to mention Ortiz's apparently boundless arrogance, and instead simply make this point: Baseball does not belong to David Ortiz or his colleagues. Ortiz certainly has a stake in the game, which has become only more true as his union has gained more and more power. But real power rests primarily with the owners and the television networks, both national and (especially) local.
David Schoenfield estimates that if Ortiz utterly ignores the new rules and they're actually enforced (don't hold your breath on that one, by the way), he might wind up getting fined roughly half a million dollars. Which is not much for a guy like him. But it's not much because the owners and the television people have been sucking (almost) every dollar from the fans that's possible, with a significant percentage of those dollars flowing to veterans like David Ortiz.
Look, he's got a good point about the rules favoring the pitchers. If he doesn't like it, he should talk to Tony Clark. Last time I checked, there were more hitters than pitchers (if just barely, these days).
I do wonder what Ortiz thought would happen, if he and his dilatory mates just kept pushing and pushing, and pushing again.
