Big Papi is Boston's HR King

Papi hits 2 for good measure as Foxx' record falls

He's getting used to these curtain calls now

By hitting his 51st home run of the season, a bomb over the bully in right, in the first inning of Boston's 6-0 victory over Minnesota, David Ortiz became the Red Sox all-time single-season home run leader.

The fact that he did it off the potential AL Cy Young winner (and the 2004 winner), Johan Santana and that he added another shot in the 7th for good measure was mere icing on the cake.
What Papi takes more pride in is passing a man who is one of the greats of the game and a Boston icon, Jimmie Foxx, whose record of 50 stood for 68 years. The fact that he was greeted at home plate after the record breaker by another legendary former Sox player and current coach Johnny Pesky was an appropriate bookend to the historical value that the moment had-

the legends of the past melding with a man who is sure to remembered as fondly and reverentially by members of the Nation as those players for decades to come.



Also lost in the shuffle was the fact that Josh Beckett pitched his best game since about mid-May. He went 8 scoreless innings, allowing only 6 hits, striking out 5 and walking none. A far cry from the scruffy-bearded powder keg who was either walking half a dozen men or giving up multiple titanic blasts per game for the better part of the last 3 months. Maybe it's the new beard trimming?


All in all in there were some good feelings going around Fenway for the first time since the Massacre II, and it was a night that will be remembered by Boston fans for a long time. Papi has been the heart, soul, and backbone of this group of underachievers all year. It's only fitting that the most important memory that will be left from this season is him officially entering the pantheon of all time Sox greats.


As if he weren't there already.