NEW YORK -- Stand up and cheer.
That is what Yankees fans should do over the next three nights when Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz walks to the plate during his final appearance in the Bronx. Ortiz deserves this respect as arguably the most important figure in the game's greatest rivalry since George Herman Ruth.
In Boston's 2004 ALCS comeback for the ages -- en route to the Red Sox breaking an 86-year-old curse -- Ortiz hit the game-winning homer in Game 4, the game-winning single in Game 5 and a two-run first-inning homer in a Game 7 blowout to earn series MVP. Since then, he hasn't stopped hitting homers against the Yankees.
Yankees fans might be seething at the suggestion that someone who has caused them such angst -- and whose accomplishments have come under some scrutiny -- should earn their praise.
So if Yankees fans want to jeer Ortiz until the bitter end, it's their prerogative. But it's not right. To boo Big Papi based on his alleged involvement with performance-enhancing drugs, for one, would be heaping with hypocrisy. Some Yankees fans will point to the New York Times report that Ortiz failed a PED test during what was supposed to be an anonymous phase of Major League Baseball's drug program. Given Ortiz’s lack of an explanation, and the arc of his career from castoff to superstar, it is easy to understand how a reasonable person might label Ortiz guilty.
Still, it shouldn't prevent fans from honoring what Ortiz has definitively done -- not what he might have done.
On one hand, even if we proceed on the assumption that Ortiz used PEDs at some point, we've seen that fans don’t really care all that much -- including Yankees fans.
Did you cheer Andy Pettitte upon his return, post-Mitchell Report? Did you applaud Alex Rodriguez in 2015 when he hit 33 homers? If you answered "yes" to either of those questions, how can Ortiz’s supposed use prevent you from acknowledging him during his final at-bats in the Bronx?
On the other hand, Ortiz has never failed a test that wasn’t anonymous. He has never been caught up in a BALCO or a Biogenesis scandal. That doesn't make him innocent, of course, but it doesn't make him guilty, either. The PED issue remains relentlessly complicated when it comes to honoring players from the last quarter century.
Bottom line, if you are a PED hard-liner who refused to cheer Yankees who were caught -- or even suspected -- you have grounds to apply that same standard to Ortiz. Otherwise, you should salute him for all he has meant to baseball and to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. His infectious smile, his ability to build friendships with seemingly anyone and everyone in the game, and his exploits at the plate in clutch moments will be a part of rivalry lore forever. His 53 homers against the Bombers are second among Red Sox players to only Ted Williams' 62.
Ortiz is one of the most clutch performers of all time. He is never afraid to fail, he says, which has allowed him to come to the Bronx and send balls into the night at the most dramatic moments. It seemed he got the Yankees more times than he didn't, but if you are competitive and live for the big moments as a fan, you wanted to see the Yankees go at him. That is what makes the rivalry eternal.
So when you head to the stadium these next three days, it should be with the intent of honoring Big Papi. He wasn’t perfect, but he was great for the game, for the Red Sox and for the sport’s greatest rivalry.
The battles with Ortiz are almost over. It's time to tip your Yankees caps to your nemesis.