Did buried jersey curse Ortiz?

I’m not the sort of person to buy into curses, but I do have a tendency to be a little superstitious, especially when it comes to clothing.

It started when I was a kid and I went bowling with a friend of mine. His dad (probably screwing with me) told me that it was good luck for a bowler to pull your socks up over your pant legs, and being a stupid little kid, I decided to try it. I got a strike on the first throw. I got a strike on the second throw. I got the first turkey of my life.

I had a lot of luck with the stupid sock trick, but when I got older I was more concerned with the social ramifications of wearing my socks over my pants than I was about my bowling score. I stopped hiking up my socks and my score plummeted, but there was no way that I was going to jack up my socks again.

I tried a number of other things, including wrist bands and lucky coins, but none of them worked. That’s the thing about “curses”—you never know what effect an item will have.

Fast forward to last week, and the fiasco that became of the David Ortiz jersey being buried in the concrete of the new Toilet.

The burying of the jersey happened to coincide with a terrible slump for Ortiz, and I began to wonder if the jersey cursed Ortiz, rather than the Yankees. If you want to curse the Yankees, bury the jersey of Carl Pavano or someone, don’t bury a cheap Ortiz home jersey with his name on the back.

And never. Ever. Try to curse anyone through the use of clothing. The potential for it to backfire is enormous.

Anyway, look for David Ortiz to have a huge game tonight, seeing as it’s his first game in the lineup since the jersey was removed yesterday.

Drew hit grand slam with “broomstick handle”

Rob Bradford wrote an interesting story about the adjustments JD Drew made at the plate in the postseason.

Apparently when David Ortiz digs in at the plate, he leaves craters in the dirt large enough to swallow Dustin Pedroia.  Drew noticed that he was planting his feet in the holes left by Ortiz, who stands really close to the plate.

“He goes in there and digs that trough, and as a hitter you end up falling in between. So the easiest thing to do is stick your toe in the same hole, and that makes you having to open up. I know that was a big thing. Once I figured it out it freed me up a little bit.”

Drew also told a pretty humorous story about how he started using Bobby Kielty’s bat in game 5 of the ALCS.

“Kielty swings a CC271, which is essentially the smallest barrel in the league, and I swing a CC243, which is one of the larger barrels in the game.

“I picked up one of Kielty’s bats and it looked like a broomstick handle, but it felt pretty good. I asked him if I could use one of his and he told me to go ahead. I picked it up, swung it, and thought I had better not, so I grabbed my bat and went out on-deck, but (Mike) Lowell grounded out to end the inning. So when I came back in the next inning I said ‘What the heck, I haven’t been hitting the ball like I wanted to,’ so I grabbed Kielty’s (bat) and went on-deck. I remember almost feeling naked on-deck. This wasn’t the weapon of choice I had been using all season.”

Drew continued to use the bat through the rest of the playoffs, including his 1st inning grand slam in game 6 of the ALCS. 

“The bases are loaded, Manny is up and I figure we’re going to get some runs right off the bat, but he gets out. And then Lowell comes up to bat and he gets out. I’m like, ‘Oh, no. I’m standing on-deck with Kielty’s bat. This is not the right decision. Lightning is not going to strike twice.’ I felt good with it on-deck, but I was still a little uncertain. It turned out pretty well.”

Ortiz says knee feels almost 100 percent

After playing most of last season with a bum right knee, David Ortiz is back and ready to rock.

Ortiz underwent surgery immediately following the World Series, and after months of rehabilitation he’s “Getting almost 100 percent.”

He still has some swelling in his knee after he works out, but he doesn’t have “that clicking and that pain that I was having before.

“I know you don’t get any younger at this game, and this is a game that’s all about speed - hitting, pitching, running, doing everything. So the older you get, you have to put in a little bit of extra work in what you do so you stay in good shape.”

Even with a bum knee, he managed to put up what I think were the best offensive numbers of his career in 2007.

It will feel good to see him crushing the ball again.