When David Ortiz barged into the interview room and interrupted Terry Francona’s press conference last week, it left us all slightly confused. There was no denying the spaz attack was real. Ortiz, Francona, and the young lady who was trying to stop Big Papi are not good enough actors to pull off a prank like that. Now that the real story has surfaced, we realize Ortiz was not playing a prank but had, in fact, been pranked.
According to Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com, Dustin Pedroia played a prank on Ortiz after Boston’s win over the Indians that worked to perfection. Ortiz was probably heated about the official scorer taking an RBI away from him to begin with, but the reason he thought the change was made is what really set him through the roof.
Haggerty informed us that Pedroia told Ortiz Red Sox owners John Henry and Larry Lucchino had ordered the official scorer to take Ortiz’s RBI away. By doing this, the ownership group could in theory keep Ortiz’s stats lower in a contract year. If I thought my boss had done that, I would be pissed too.
Don’t get me wrong, the way Ortiz went about it is still extremely selfish. Players aren’t supposed to show the public that they are stat-hungry or money-hungry, let alone interrupt an official press conference to settle a personal issue. However, the Laser Show’s prank makes it a tiny bit more reasonable. Now the question is, how does this compare to other baseball pranks we’ve featured here at LBS.
