What does Big Papi think of the state of the Sox?

David Ortiz is one of the greatest Boston Red Sox — and Boston athletes in general — of all time.

So what does Big Papi think of the current state of his former team? The Hall of Famer joined Mike Golic Jr. and Mike Golic Sr. on Friday’s GoJo and Golic to discuss that and more.

After talking about Papi being honored by the NEW YORK legislature of all groups, Senior wanted to take it to the topic du jour – which athletes could best cross over to other sports? Papi was a bit of a basketball player back in his youth growing up in the Dominican Republic, so could he have starred in another sport? Ortiz says that as an athlete there are always sacrifices you have to make in order to achieve your goals, especially making it to the pros. He says that a lot of people told him he could have played football because of his size, but he notes that every sport has its specialties and you have to be born to play that sport, grow up with it. He says it’s not like you could wake up one day and decide you’re going to play any sport and be successful.

So could any of those football or basketball players hit a curveball?

“Oh, hell no. No chance.”

Papi says the one thing he can tell for sure is that no other athlete is going to be able to hit a 100 mph fastball. He says it doesn’t matter if you’re the best athlete on Earth. And Senior agrees, saying that despite his nine-year NFL career he has no problem admitting that hitting a baseball is way harder from a technical standpoint than what he had to do on the football field.

In terms of changes made to the game of baseball in recent years, Papi admits that he wasn’t initially all in but now looking back, a four-hour game vs. a two-and-a-half-hour game is a big difference. Working in TV now, Papi says he has issues with the way players are developing, but he doesn’t have issues with the pitch clock. Specifically, he says everyone is hitting .150. What’s going on? He says even the good players are struggling in terms of average, and he says when launch angle and swinging under the ball became a concept, he says he knew some things would be changing in the game.

GoJo had to ask Papi about the state of his beloved Red Sox. After winning four titles from 2004-18, the team has hit a bit of a rough patch of late, finishing in last place each of the last two seasons. After promising to go full-throttle going into last season, ownership still didn’t make a big splash in free agency leaving the fanbase frustrated. So how does Big Papi see things?

For more, watch or listen to the full show below and make sure to tune into GoJo and Golic weekday mornings from 8-10 a.m. ET on DraftKings Network! See more about how to watch DraftKings Network here.

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Watch GoJo and Golic every weekday on Samsung TV Plus, Roku, Xumo Play, Google TV and DraftKingsNetwork.com from 8 to 10 a.m. ET. The show is also available via audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Mike Golic Sr. on X at @golic and Mike Golic Jr. on X at @mikegolicjr.

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