A Brief History of David Ortiz Losing His Cool

Nobody uses landlines anymore, right? I’m pretty sure that’s where David Ortiz was coming from on Saturday night, when he suggested that the Red Sox switch to cellular communications for all contact between the dugout and bullpen. Unsurprisingly, the scolds are out in the papers, but to anyone who’s watched Big Papi over the years, Saturday’s outburst was no surprise. He has a long history of losing his cool.

After bad at bats, for instance, sometimes he takes it out on his lumber:

And everybody knows Papi can be a little hard headed:

He definitely doesn’t take kindly to pitchers buzzing his tower. Just ask former Orioles pitcher Kevin Gregg.

And who could forget the time in Anaheim in 2004, when upset at the umps, he chucked his bats on the field, nearly hitting them. (Apparently the internet could forget, I couldn’t find any video.)

All told, Ortiz has been ejected 10 times in his career, which has spanned some 15 years in the majors. He seems to be good for about one temper tantrum a year. It’s not the end of the world and, in a slow game like baseball, it’s nice to have a little something to spice things up. We could spend time saying how Ortiz should be more mature and that maybe he could have hurt someone or got a splinter or risked suspension, but after all this time, that’s who he is. I think it’s pretty entertaining. Especially since he followed up his blow-up with a 4-4 day yesterday, including a home run and, naturally, another visit to the phone. To borrow a line from one of his former teammates, it’s just Papi being Papi.