In The Media Guide

In my collection, I currently have every Red Sox Media Guide dating back to 1998. I love flipping through them to see what tidbits they contain. I figured that if I liked it, you might enjoy taking a look along with me. So, I had a random number generator select a page from the 2014 edition to talk about today. 

Coincidentally, it selected…

236

Page 236 in the 2014 Media Guide is the ninth page of David Ortiz’s entry. (Yup, as should be no surprise, Ortiz has a long entry.) This page covers Papi’s career in 2010, and some of 2009. What did the authors feel was important enough to mention?

The first thing I see is a graphic. Those are usually fun. This one shows the top five Red Sox with the most 25-HR seasons. As you should expect, Ted Williams leads the pack. Not including Ortiz, Ted has twice as many such seasons as anyone else. I have to admit that I was surprised to see Ortiz at number two. Not so much that he has nine seasons. But, that nobody else did. Yaz didn’t? In fact, Yaz isn’t even in the top five. Weird. Jim Rice makes sense on the list. As do Manny Ramirez and Mo Vaughn. Manny and Mo are only unexpected because they each only played for the Sox eight seasons. So, they hit 25 home runs in six of those eight. Pretty impressive.

What else does the page talk about? There are two facts bolded in red. Those must be important. The first one states that in 2010 Ortiz hit 30/100 for the sixth time and made his sixth all-star team. I’m guessing that those two feats are not entirely unrelated.

The other one points out that in 2009 Ortiz set the career record for home runs by a DH. As usual, I don’t like accomplishments with qualifiers. But, that’s pretty cool.

Some other things that the page points out?

Ortiz had 21 walks in June of 2010, to lead the majors.

He hit a walk-off 3-run double on 7/31/2010. Of course he did.

In 2009 the Sox went 23-4 when he homered. I have no idea what it means, but that’s a pretty good record.

Of course, there’s a lot more great stuff on the page.

Just like every page.