David Ortiz Walking Into Red Sox Spring Training Camp Will Never Not Get Me Amped Up

Yeah, I’m never gonna let go. It’s official. When guys turn 40 and they retire, it’s usually because they held on for too long and they crawled to the finish line. David Ortiz had arguably the greatest final season of any professional athlete in any sport ever who wasn’t forced into retirement prematurely. Wondering how well he could’ve performed had he kept playing will always haunt me.

I honestly think he could come back right now and still hit 30 homers and drive in 100 runs at the age of 42. That’s just what he does, regardless of how old he is, who’s protecting him in the lineup, who’s managing, or how good his team is. Maybe in fifteen or sixteen more years, I’ll finally be able to accept that he isn’t actually coming back, but when he strolls into spring training looking like he could jump in the cage and hit more homers than anyone else on the team in BP — which he legitimately could do and would do if he attempted it — then it’s just hard to let go of David Ortiz.

Seeing David Ortiz show up to Red Sox spring training in phenomenal shape, looking like he hasn’t aged a day since his prime, but also knowing that he’s retired — it’s like if your childhood dog died, but you can still see them in your living room, only you can’t pet them, or hug them, or play with them, or ask them who’s a good boy/girl. It’s absolute torture, but you still have to take that scenario over the alternative of just never seeing them again at all.

PS — I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end, because we’re all going to die and there will come a day when the sun engulfs the earth and everything we’ve ever done will cease to exist.