So David Ortiz received a plaque that said “David Ortiz #34 The Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox” yesterday.
Now, I’m of the camp that doesn’t believe that there is much difference in clutch hitting ability among major league players, at least compared to regular hitting ability. But I do believe clutch hits (as in, hits during supposedly “key” situations) exist. So as a record of past achievement - rather than of predictive ability - that award is correct in that, yes, Ortiz has had many clutch hits. I mean, the 2004 postseason alone will tell you that.
And Ortiz will have many more. Partly because he’s a great, great hitter. But also partly because of the way the Sox lineup is currently constructed. With 1) the Sox team’s awesome ability to get on base and 2) Manny behind Ortiz not allowing the pitcher to just pitch around Ortiz, Papi will naturally have more chances to be up there to make a difference “when it counts”.
Heck, in perhaps the greatest display clutch hitting within 24 hours, the 2004 ALCS, Ortiz had chances for clutch hits much earlier. In Game 4, obscured by the famous “Millar walks, Roberts steals, Mueller singles” sequence, Ortiz popped out with the bases loaded to make the last out of the bottom of the 9th. I remember thinking that we had our hand on the throat and we only made a small incision there. In Game 5, Ortiz had chances for walkoffs in the 10th (struck out) and 12th (walked, caught stealing), before that wonderful game-ending “and [Johnny Damon] can run all the way to New York” single.
So for me clutch hits are kind of like RBIs - not a very good record if you want to guess what’s going to happen in the future, but not a bad record if you want to know how much you’ve affected the results of games already played.