David Américo Ortiz Arias , nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American former Major League Baseball designated hitter and first baseman who played 20 seasons, primarily with the Boston Red Sox. He also played for the Minnesota Twins. During his 14 seasons with the Red Sox, he was a ten-time All-Star, a three-time World Series champion, and seven-time Silver Slugger winner. Ortiz also holds the Red Sox single-season record for home runs with 54, which he set during the 2006 season.
Originally signed by the Seattle Mariners in 1992, Ortiz was traded to the Twins in 1996 and played six seasons with the team. Ortiz was released by the Twins and signed with the Boston Red Sox in 2003, where he spent the remainder of his career. In Boston, Ortiz established himself as one of the most powerful sluggers of all time. He was instrumental in the team ending its 86-year World Series championship drought in 2004, as well as during successful championship runs in 2007 and 2013, and was named MVP of the latter. Ortiz also has the highest career batting average in World Series play at .455.
Ortiz finished his career with 541 home runs, which ranks 17th on the MLB all-time home run list, 1,768 RBIs and a .286 batting average. Among designated hitters, he is the all-time leader in MLB history for home runs , runs batted in , and hits . Regarded as one of the best clutch hitters of all time, Ortiz had 11 career walk-off home runs during the regular season and 2 during the postseason.
“We keep on fighting, we keep on playing. We won tonight and we're going to try to keep on winning.”
On cue, Drew caps remarkable Sox rally, MLB.com, Ian Browne, October 17, 2008, 2008-12-26 http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20081016&content_id=3625822&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos,
“This is our fucking city! And nobody is gonna dictate our freedom. Stay Strong!”
After the Boston Marathon Bombings
Biography at biggeststars.com http://www.biggeststars.com/d/david-ortiz-biography.html
