David Ortiz on the mend: shooting and recovery

InstaFace

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Sounds like spirits are high, all things considered. That post is everything I was hoping to hear from him, the absence of which was making me worry.
 

Murderer's Crow

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Great news and sounds like he's right on track. The lack of personal photos of him obviously indicates that he has some physical recovery to do and may look a bit sickly. He probably lost a ton of weight as well which would alarm the public. Just no reason to do that knowing that he's doing well.
 

steveluck7

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Red(s)HawksFan

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Ian Browne has snippets of a statement from Ortiz that he relased through a PR firm
https://twitter.com/IanMBrowne/status/1155890179808342016
“I am feeling good, but know I need to do my rehab just like I did when I was recovering from injuries playing baseball," Ortiz also said.

https://twitter.com/IanMBrowne/status/1155889613128572929
"Big Papi will be back soon," David Ortiz wants all his fans to know, as part of an extended statement he just released through a PR firm.
Full statement...

 

Green Monster

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I hesitate to include this in this thread as there is no indication that Ortiz was/is anyway involved, and I am not trying to imply that is the case, but both stories appear to involve the drug lord "Cesar the Abuser". First Papi getting shot after possibly being involved with Cesar's girlfriend and now two other notable major leaguers implicated in drug trafficking in support of Cesar. There is sure some serious stuff going on in the Dominican Republic

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ex-mlb-players-octavio-dotel-luis-castillo-implicated-in-dominican-drug-trafficking-money-laundering-scheme/
** Dopes - If there is a more appropriate location for this please move it **
 
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Al Zarilla

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I hesitate to include this in this thread as there is no indication that Ortiz was/is anyway involved, and I am not trying to imply that is the case, but both stories appear to involve the drug lord "Cesar the Abuser". First Papi getting shot after possibly being involved with Cesar's girlfriend and now two other notable major leaguers implicated in drug trafficking in support of Cesar. There is sure some serious stuff going on in the Dominican Republic

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ex-mlb-players-octavio-dotel-luis-castillo-implicated-in-dominican-drug-trafficking-money-laundering-scheme/
** Dopes - If there is a more appropriate location for this please move it **
One of Chris Berman's better sports figure nicknames "Don't Ask Dotel".

Very heavy duty stuff for Dotel and Castillo, if true. $40 million and $56 million in baseball earnings, respectively, just didn't last I guess.
 
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I hesitate to include this in this thread as there is no indication that Ortiz was/is anyway involved, and I am not trying to imply that is the case, but both stories appear to involve the drug lord "Cesar the Abuser". First Papi getting shot after possibly being involved with Cesar's girlfriend and now two other notable major leaguers implicated in drug trafficking in support of Cesar. There is sure some serious stuff going on in the Dominican Republic

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ex-mlb-players-octavio-dotel-luis-castillo-implicated-in-dominican-drug-trafficking-money-laundering-scheme/
** Dopes - If there is a more appropriate location for this please move it **
I rarely click this thread anymore as I believe the story, other than his health status, has run its course. I don't care what he was doing with Cesar's girlfriend and it's none of my business, anyway. I hope he has a full recovery and gets back to enjoying his retirement.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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Here we go. Ortiz hires ex-Commissioner Ed Davis to find out what really happened.

Ortiz gets a private investigation
Is this guy really going to be able to figure out something that happened in another sovereign country?

Maybe he can also solve the mystery of why Ortiz was on that list of players who may have tested positive for a banned substance from that report that came out during the Mitchell investigation since Ortiz never got a straight answer there other than being told to go pound sand.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Is this guy really going to be able to figure out something that happened in another sovereign country?

Maybe he can also solve the mystery of why Ortiz was on that list of players who may have tested positive for a banned substance from that report that came out during the Mitchell investigation since Ortiz never got a straight answer there other than being told to go pound sand.
There are plenty of PI firms that have international offices and/or connections. It's reasonable to assume Davis' firm has those connections in D.R. or they wouldn't have taken the case.
 

Reverend

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Here we go. Ortiz hires ex-Commissioner Ed Davis to find out what really happened.

Ortiz gets a private investigation
"He had no basis for a long time to challenge their theory of mistaken identity. However, as new facts continue to come up, it lends some optimism that there may be some other conclusions that are drawn before it's over about why David was shot.''
“Optimism”?

Like, what are the hopeful outcomes here, assuming they all include the fact that he already got shot?
 

snowmanny

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Is this guy really going to be able to figure out something that happened in another sovereign country?

Maybe he can also solve the mystery of why Ortiz was on that list of players who may have tested positive for a banned substance from that report that came out during the Mitchell investigation since Ortiz never got a straight answer there other than being told to go pound sand.
Well, Manfred said that Ortiz being on that list did not necessarily mean he tested positive for steroids.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/qky9ew/mlb-commissioner-gives-david-ortiz-a-pass-on-failed-ped-test-from-2003
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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Well, Manfred said that Ortiz being on that list did not necessarily mean he tested positive for steroids.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/qky9ew/mlb-commissioner-gives-david-ortiz-a-pass-on-failed-ped-test-from-2003
True but that's not exactly concrete either way. I realize there probably was only so much he could reveal since it was supposed to be anonymous but that's been hanging over Ortiz's head ever since it came out and there are still a lot of people who are convinced he doped and it may well cost him a first-ballot entry into Cooperstown (which is going to be an uphill battle as it is with him being primarily a DH his entire career, even with Molitor and Edgar getting in while serving in similar capacities for large portions of their careers). I was mostly being facetious, but if he's going to be using this guy and the guy has access to PIs, it seems like something he might be able to get more clarity on it if they can dig deep enough. But I've also seen a lot of movies and chances are it's been so long that it would be a dead end anyway.
 

terrynever

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Thanks for posting that Terry and I will, how do you put it, re2pect those two guys more now.
My take is all the respect goes to Papi, a rare athlete and man respected by most everyone on both sides of the rivalry. I think it also says something about how Gary Sanchez is growing up, as an athlete and a man.
 

InstaFace

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Papi has his first TV interview since the shooting, on Univision. Various secondhand articles translate and quote bits of it, but there's the original.

Good to see him starting to make the rounds. I'm finally feeling easier about his health going forward.
 

InstaFace

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so, a secondary infection in the area he got surgery in did in fact occur. And things were pretty grave for a while. I guess that matches what we surmised during his long absence.

But the best line from that article (which is worth a read) is definitely:

“You gotta pay a lot more than that to get me killed,” Ortiz said of the alleged $7,800 bounty put on his head. “I ain’t that cheap.’
2nd place:

Ortiz also dismissed tabloid rumors that have emanated from social media in the Dominican Republic. One suggested a car he was driving had been chased and forced off the road by someone trying to harm him before the shooting.

“If that ever happened to me, the first person I would call would be the president of the Dominican Republic,’’ Ortiz said. “I know he would do something about it. That’s how close we are.’’
Fucking badass as always.
 

InsideTheParker

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Behind the pay wall for me. Can you, or anyone, provide a couple of the key pull quotes?
I don't subscribe to the Glob either, b/c I prefer to get local papers, but if you click on the url line until you see some horizontal lines in the right side of that line and then click on those, you can read the text, without photos, which I am about to do. In case you can read Mass Live, there's this. The gist is that this drug lord was jealous of Ortiz, who lived in the same building and was more attractive to women, etc. The main interest of the story, imo, lies in the description of the corruption of the Dominican government by criminal pay-offs. That led to Ortiz hiring the retired Boston cop to do his own investigation. I don't think that everything has been made clear by these revelations , however. It is very uncomfortable to me to see how legitimately frightened our hero is of this guy, even though he's incarcerated right now. He never calls the drug lord out by name and not surprisingly is accompanied by bodyguards everywhere he goes.
 
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JOBU

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Does it seem strange to anyone else that Ortiz had to fund the investigation? Isn’t that supposed to be handled by the police down there?