Simmons on David Ortiz

I love Bill Simmons. He's one of my favorite writers on the planet. Unfortunately, he rarely talks about the Red Sox. He's a Celtics/basketball guy who writes football on the side. So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to an article about David Ortiz. My favorite part: Red Sox fans refuse to turn against Ortiz. They just can't. They owe him too much for 2004 and 2007. It's like turning on Santa Claus or happy hour. Every Ortiz appearance is greeted with supportive cheers, every Ortiz failure is greeted with awkward silence. The fans are suffering just like he is. Only when he left 12 men on base against Anaheim on May 14 did I receive a slew of angry e-mails from back home, but even those tirades centered more around Terry Francona's steadfast refusal to drop Ortiz in the order. I cannot remember another Boston athlete stinking this long, and this fragrantly, without getting dumped on. Really, that's a tribute to what he means to...