Can you believe your own eyes? That was a question more easily answered for those present last night at Fenway Park when Ortiz, in his first at-bat, did some mythmaking of his own, hitting his 51st home run of the season, breaking the club record set in 1938 by Jimmie Foxx, a Hall of Famer. Boston's designated hitter added his own coda to this historic night by hitting another home run, No. 52, in his last at-bat during a 6-0 Boston victory over the Minnesota Twins before a crowd of 36,434.
"I think it means a lot because people expect me to get up there and jack it out," said Ortiz, one of only 10 players in the 105-year history of the American League to hit as many as 52 home runs in a season.
``A great feeling, especially doing it here at home in front of my fans. I think the whole [Red Sox] nation enjoys when you do something like that at home. It's pretty fun. I mean, people were just going crazy out there."
With nine games to play, Ortiz is a distant nine home runs from the AL record of 61 set in 1961 by Roger Maris, a record that has been eclipsed in the steroid era in the National League by Sammy Sosa (three times), Mark McGwire (twice), and Barry Bonds, who in 2001 hit 73, the current record.
Coincidentally, yesterday afternoon a federal judge in San Francisco ordered 18-month jail sentences, pending appeal, for the two newspaper reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle who refused to identify the sources who provided them secret testimony from the grand jury investigating Bonds's alleged use of performance-enhancing substances.
Last night, Ortiz, unprompted, alluded to the cloud of suspicion that tends to appear whenever a ballplayer, especially a slugger, achieves great things.
``This is something that might change people's minds and let them know that there are still a lot of good athletes still playing the game and still working hard and preparing themselves to play the game the way it's supposed to be," he said. ``A lot of people out there, a lot of players, that have a lot of respect for the game. I know there are some guys that have been caught using illegal things, but people should know that not everyone is like that.
