"Papi's fine. Thanks for playing."

This video is from early 2010, when David Ortiz was enduring a much worse slump than the one currently being lamented across Red Sox Nation.

Yes, David Ortiz, the "Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox," is enduring a hellacious slump. Ortiz is 0 for his last 22, hitless for a week and a half.

But Big Papi isn't concerned, even though the drought has lowered his batting average seventeen points. Ortiz has been playing baseball his whole life, he has been playing before the Fenway Faithful for a decade, and he knows how this works.

The fans clamor for the reason behind this unexplainable phenomenon. The media badgers him after every missed opportunity. When he remains unresponsive, the media will begin to bother his teammates and coaches, asking the most ridiculous of questions: "What's wrong with David Ortiz?"

Of course, nothing is wrong with David Ortiz. He'll inevitably get hot sooner or later, and if the Red Sox make the playoffs, no one will remember Papi's hitless week at the end of August.

Luckily for him, the slump is coming in the middle of the season, because hysteria is contagious when aging designated hitters struggle in April. Unfortunately for us, Dustin Pedroia seems to save his greatest quips for questions about such unwarranted hysteria:

"Papi's fine. Thanks for playing."