The 40-year-old version of David Ortiz is doing the same thing that the 20-year-old version did; defying the odds and stirring up conversations amongst Major League Baseball fans.
Since announcing that the 2016 season would be his last, David “Big Papi” Ortiz has been destroying opposing pitching, which has led people to question his decision to retire after the season.
As productive as he has been, it is definitely time for him to end this chapter and begin a new chapter in his life.
Every superstar reaches a point where they just know that it is time to call it a career. People are going to write all over Twitter and say that he’s a quitter, which is totally false. Even though it looks like there’s a lot left in the tank, there really may not be.
In sports, age 30 is the first milestone, as it is known as the beginning of the end of an athlete’s prime, but, in life, age 40 is the biggest and most dreadful milestone because the human body begins to show signs of aging. Ortiz has approached both of those milestones and has been lucky enough to avoid the effects of both of them so far.
He’s not going to be able to avoid injuries forever and they will catch up with him at some point. The problem isn’t bat speed and whether he will be able to hit a baseball 400 feet, it’s about injuries and him hurting himself swinging the bat or even rounding third as he tries to beat the throw home.
People are more prone to injury when their body is more fatigued than usual and, when you are a 40-year-old and living the lifestyle of a MLB player like David Ortiz is, your body is going to get fatigued quickly and you will experience more injuries. Saying that, the longer that he plays, the more he’s risking a career-ending and life-changing injury.
Although speed was never one of his strengths, Ortiz has evolved into one of the players who specialize in bat speed, something that is definitely going to diminish in the next few years. Even though the low wall in right field at Fenway Park has been his friend for a while, it’s not going to get any closer.
As much as the numbers make it seem like David Ortiz should spend another summer in the batter’s box, it is his time to hang up the boots and call it a career.
