Remember those old commercials for EF Hutton that said, “When Hutton speaks, people listen”? I’m the same way about David Ortiz. Guy makes any kind of statement, whether it’s post-game, pre-game or during a dedication ceremony for a new ferris wheel, I wanna know about it. Yesterday, he spoke of his knee surgery. And it went something like this:

“I think I will be training and running at full speed by January,” Ortiz told the Associated Press from the Dominican Republic. “It was a simple operation.”

He also added this bit on SteroidsGate:

“It’s like they’ve placed that issue on the same level as [the war in] Iraq,” Ortiz said. “It doesn’t make sense to hear people talk more about whether Barry Bonds used steroids than about people dying in Iraq.”

Meanwhile, today’s Herald tells us that the Sox are stepping up their pursuit of Santana, but trying to get Minnesota to bite for Coco instead of Jacoby. See, this would be so much easier if we were talking about Carlos Santana; I think a package deal of Joe Perry and one of the Dropkick Murphys would suffice. Yeah, for the blistering guitar solos we’d get to accompany the nightly playings of “Sweet Caroline”, I’d do that deal in a heartbeat. If they pressed, I’d throw in Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and the girl from Til Tuesday. Even better, maybe one of the Cars. They can have Ric Ocasek. Just don’t f@#k with Ellsbury, man.