MLB

Was David Ortiz’ Press Conference Freakout The Result Of A Teammate’s Prank?

When David Ortiz stormed into Red Sox manager Terry Francona’s press conference last week, demanding to speak with him over a rescinded RBI from the team’s previous game, most people thought something like, “Wow, I have never seen Ortiz that pissed,” or, “Wow, Ortiz really cares about his stats, doesn’t he?” Well, according to Comcast SportsNet New England’s Joe Haggerty, the outburst wasn’t quite that simple. In fact, it only happened at all due to a mischief-making teammate of Ortiz’s – second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

Pedroia, Haggerty said, went up to Ortiz upon hearing the news of the taken-away RBI, and told him that it happened at the behest of Red Sox owner John Henry and general manager Theo Epstein, who were doing everything possible to keep Ortiz’s numbers down, thereby depressing his potential value on the open market and giving him less leverage when he becomes a free agent after this season. A dirty trick – but it didn’t happen. Pedroia was pranking Papi.

And pranking him extremely well, as it turned out. (Let’s check out once again how well it worked.) Major credit to Pedroia here…that’s a brilliant trick, if it played out like Haggerty said. A bit less credit to Ortiz: we don’t blame him at all for being pissed when he heard this, but interrupting an in-progress press conference probably wasn’t the ideal move. If we were him, though, we’d definitely try our best to get back at Pedroia – and it might not even be too difficult, since Pedroia definitely has many pushable buttons. And after pulling this prank off, he’s got one coming back his way.

[h/t Larry Brown Sports]