Where David Ortiz Ranks In ESPN’s Top 2000s Athletes

David Ortiz will always be loved in Boston for the 14 seasons he played in a Red Sox uniform.

The former designated hitter is many fans’ favorite athlete of all time after everything he accomplished as a baseball player. He is a Hall of Famer, led the Red Sox to three World Series wins, 10-time All-Star, seven-time Silver Slugger, and that’s just naming a few accomplishments.

With all Ortiz has done in baseball, ESPN ranked him at No. 45 in their “Ranking the top 100 professional athletes since 2000” article.

“Above everything, Big Papi will be remembered for feasting in the biggest of moments,” Bradford Doolittle wrote. “As the game’s greatest designated hitter, Ortiz had Cooperstown numbers — 541 career homers and a .931 OPS — but that’s only the tip of Papi’s boisterous iceberg. He had 17 career playoff homers as part of three championship Boston Red Sox clubs and hit .455 over 14 World Series games. That includes 2013, when, at age 37, he went 11-for-16 with two homers and eight walks in the Fall Classic against a St. Louis Cardinals team that could not get him out.”

Ortiz was not the only athlete who played in Boston on the list with names that included Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Mookie Betts and Pedro Martinez.

Ortiz was ranked as the highest Red Sox player, but Martinez made the list at No. 92. The retired pitcher is a Hall of Famer, 2000 Cy Young Winner, four-time All-Star and 2004 World Series winner.

“Before Martinez and his 2004 Boston teammates ended the franchise’s epic World Series title drought, every Red Sox star had to field endless questions about the ‘Curse of the Bambino,'” Doolittle wrote. “One of Martinez’s answers summed up how a short, skinny righty could become one of the most dominant hurlers ever: “I don’t believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I’ll drill him in the a–.” From 1997 to 2003, the height of one of baseball’s most explosive offensive eras, Martinez was as good as any pitcher has ever been, going 118-36 with a 2.20 ERA, 213 ERA+ and over 250 strikeouts per season and winning three Cy Young Awards.”

The highest-rated baseball player on the list is former St Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols at No. 24.