On Monday a Dominican Republic court convicted 10 of the 13 people accused of attempting to murder former Major League Baseball star David “Big Papi” Ortiz in 2019, according to reports.
Who Shot MLB Star David Ortiz?
Rolfi Ferreyra Cruz, who is accused of shooting Ortiz, and Eddy Vladimir Feliz Garcia were sentenced to 30 years each in prison, the longest sentences among the defendants.
Eight other defendants received sentences of between 5 and 20 years in prison, according to the verdict from the First Collegiate Court of Santo Domingo.
The three defendants who were acquitted due to insufficient evidence include alleged mastermind Victor Hugo Gomez.
Dominican authorities have maintained that the shooting of Ortiz was a case of mistaken identity. The supposed target was meant to be Sixto David Fernandez, who was sharing a table at a bar with Ortiz when he was shot.
However, early reports suggested that Ortiz was in a relationship with a notorious drug kingpin’s woman. Ortiz reportedly bought a luxury car for her.
Who Is Hugo Gomez?
Ortiz was in the hospital for six weeks following the incident and underwent two surgeries.
Hugo Gomez is an associate of the Mexico Gulf Cartel and is believed to have ordered the murder of Fernandez because he believed Fernandez, his cousin, turned him in to Dominican drug officials in 2011.
Ortiz is a somewhat controversial figure in baseball lore. He was among the 100 Major League Baseball players that allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. He denied ever buying or using steroids and said his positive tests could be tied to supplements he was taking.
Did David Ortiz Use PED?
He’s beloved in Boston and celebrated in his home country of the Dominican Republic. But he has been very fortunate to skate around this steroids controversy.
While Ortiz gets a lot of love, and rightfully so. He’s not the best Dominican player ever. That distinction belongs to either Pedro Martinez or Albert Pujols.
Who’s The Best Dominican MLB Player Ever?
If we remove Martinez from the discussion because he’s a pitcher, the hitting numbers say it’s Pujols and it’s not even close.
Pujols is a two-time World Series champion, 11-time All-Star, six-time Silver Slugger, three-time MVP and has two Gold Gloves. He has 3,384 hits, 703 home runs and 2,218 RBIs.
Pujols’ first 11 seasons in MLB were quite possibly the greatest start to any baseball career from an offensive production standpoint. He won all his MVPs, Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger awards during this stretch, and made nine of his 10 All-Star appearances.
His batting average was .328 over that span with .421/.617/1.037 averages in on-base, slugging and OPS.
Pujols’ wins above replacement (WAR) with the Cards was 86.6. That’s a WAR of 7.8 per season.
WAR measures a player’s value in all facets of the game by deciphering how many more wins he’s worth than a replacement-level player at his same position. Baseball Reference measures 5+ in WAR for a single season as an All-Star level player, and 8+ as an MVP quality player.
In other words, Pujols played above, at, or near MVP level for 11 consecutive seasons. That’s unheard of.
Ortiz led the Boston Red Sox to three World Series championships, was a 10-time All-Star and seven-time Silver Slugger. He hit 541 home runs and had 1,768 RBIs.
He batted .688 against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013 and was named World Series MVP.
The Red Sox retired his number, 34, in 2017, and he has a bridge and a stretch of road outside Fenway Park named after him.
He was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in January 2022.
