Ortiz disputes this 'inside' story

NEW YORK -- The headline on the back page of the New York Post taunted David Ortiz.

''Drop Papi!" the paper proclaimed in bold letters. Several copies were littered about the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, and Ortiz made his first examination of it around 3:35 p.m. yesterday.

He didn't get far. He stopped reading after two sentences of Mike Vaccaro's column: ''The Yankees have to drop Papi. They need to brush the beast back."

''What a bunch of [expletive]," thundered Boston's designated hitter.

At first glance, the Post headline suggested a story that was laced with fighting words, but as is often the case with Gotham City tabloid journalism, the prose inside was far less inflammatory. Vaccaro's premise was that Ortiz needed to be challenged more by New York's pitchers, and that meant a few inside pitches that would back him off the plate.

''If Ortiz were any more comfortable at the plate, he'd bring a chaise lounge, a pitcher of Pina Coladas and a couple of Cuban cigars with him to the batter's box," wrote Vaccaro. ''If he were anymore settled in, he'd hang a badminton net on the grass."

He then suggested that someone -- either Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, or Shawn Chacon -- do something to alter Ortiz's comfort level.

Ortiz was not amused. It's hard to blame him. ''Drop Papi!" can lead to all sorts of interpretations, including messing with the livelihood of the man in question.

''You don't need to put that out there," said Ortiz. ''I hate it when some [expletive] who has never played starts telling us how we should do things.

''All that does is cause problems nobody needs. Now if a guy goes out and makes a mistake and hits me, now what I am going to think? It's out there now. Some writer starts causing [expletive], for what? I don't understand it."

The Red Sox slugger wasn't the only one. When the topic of ''Drop Papi!" inevitably came up in Terry Francona's news conference, the manager was in no mood to speculate on the value -- or validity -- of the newspaper hyperbole.

When asked if he had seen the back page of a certain New York city paper, Francona replied, ''I didn't even see the front page.

''You go ahead and enjoy yourself with that one. I won't talk about it."

There's no denying Big Papi has been a Yankee killer. Last week, he deposited a three-run homer into the bullpen off Mike Myers (who was signed by New York with the express purpose of stifling lefthanders whose nicknames rhyme with ''Slap Happy") to clinch a 7-3 win. For his career, Ortiz is hitting .320 (43 for 134) with 11 home runs and 21 RBIs against them.

The fact that moving Ortiz off the plate was a topic while he was mired in a 1-for-20 slump is a testament to two things: the respect Big Papi has earned in one of the toughest road venues in baseball, and the fact that this rivalry is doomed to be embroiled in as much turmoil as possible -- real or imagined.

Mike Port, the vice president of umpiring (and former Sox general manager), reported that his office received a call from a fan in Boston lodging a complaint.

''It was from an elderly woman," Port said. ''She wanted us to know she was concerned for the well-being of David against those Yankees."

But the potential for drama was quickly deflated in the first inning, when Ortiz strode to the plate, dug in, waited . . . and then walked on four pitches.

So much for the brushback.

He completed the night 1 for 4 with no ''inside" pitches to speak of tossed his way.

Pitching inside is part of baseball. Throwing inside is not. Nobody needs to explain that to Johnson -- or Yankees manager Joe Torre, himself a former catcher.

The topic will have legs, though, particularly if someone actually does buzz Ortiz in the days or months ahead.

''I'm not going to think about it," Ortiz said. ''All that does is put me in a place where I don't belong. I have respect for everybody. I hope to get that respect back."