Boston Red Sox: David Ortiz calls writer obscenity live on Boston radio

Earlier this offseason, Boston sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe released his Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. And it did not have former Boston Red Sox DH David Ortiz on the ballot. In fact, he only had one player on his ballot: second baseman Jeff Kent.

Ortiz was a guest on “Merloni & Fauria” on WEEI, which is the flagship radio station for the Boston Red Sox. Ortiz, in talking to his former Red Sox teammate Lou Merloni and former New England Patriots Christian Fauria, called Shaughnessy an “a-hole.”

Former Boston Red Sox DH David Ortiz slammed Dan Shaughnessy, calling him an “a-hole”

When asked about Dan Shaughnessy’s ballot, David Ortiz made his feelings well known about Shaughnessy leaving him off his ballot.

“You know Dan Shaughnessy has been an a-hole to everybody, so what can I tell you?” Ortiz said on Merloni & Fauria on WEEI on Wednesday. “It’s not a surprise for me, it’s not a surprise for y’all. Now he didn’t vote for me, so what can I do? I mean, seriously, that’s not gonna stop anything. It’s just one guy that didn’t vote for you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.“He’s got no damn power, bro. You know that,” Ortiz added. “He’s just got the power of the pen to write whatever he believes in. But everybody knows that he’s an a-hole. What else can you do?”

Ortiz and Shaughnessy have a long history as far back in 2013, Shaughnessy asked Ortiz about being suspected of steroid use, based on his age and where he is from (the Dominican Republic).

Shaughnessy, who won the 2016 J.G. Taylor Spink Award which honors baseball writers in the Baseball Hall of Fame, claimed that Ortiz “fit all the models” for taking steroids.

Two years later, Ortiz said, “I wanted to kill this guy. But you can’t react. That’s what they want.” Ortiz also said that Shaughnessy “never apologized” to Ortiz for the claims.

Ortiz was named in a 2009 New York Times report about testing positive for a banned substance in 2003 but, at the time, MLB instituted anonymous testing to determine if formal testing for PEDs was necessary. After that, Ortiz never tested positive for a PED test after MLB instituted their Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in the spring of 2006.

As of this publication, according to Ryan Thibodaux and his 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker, Ortiz has 83.7 percent of the vote through 162 ballots (roughly 44 percent of the total vote). A player needs to reach 75 percent for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.