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Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits - Hardcover

Ortiz, David; Massaroti, Tony

 
9780312366339: Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0312366337 ISBN 13: 9780312366339
Verlag: St Martins Pr, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

A Boston Red Sox all-star slugger recounts his childhood in the impoverished Dominican Republic, his lesser achievements with the Mariners and Twins, and the influence of his respected parents on his athletic achievements. 150,000 first printing.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

DAVID ORTIZ has averaged more than 43 home runs and 131 RBIs as a member of the Boston Red Sox, leading all major league players in RBIs during the four-year period from 2003 to 2006. Ortiz has spent all or parts of ten years in the major leagues. In 2006, he hit 54 home runs to set a Red Sox franchise record, breaking the mark previously held by Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx.
 
TONY MASSAROTTI began covering baseball in 1991 for the Boston Herald. He coauthored the bestselling book A TALE OF TWO CITIES: THE 2004 RED SOX-YANKEES RIVALRY AND THE WAR FOR THE PENNANT. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, Natalie, and their son, Alexander.


DAVID ORTIZ has averaged more than 43 home runs and 131 RBIs as a member of the Boston Red Sox, leading all major league players in RBIs during the four-year period from 2003 to 2006. Ortiz has spent all or parts of ten years in the major leagues. In 2006, he hit 54 home runs to set a Red Sox franchise record, breaking the mark previously held by Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx.
TONY MASSAROTTI began covering baseball in 1991 for the Boston Herald. He coauthored the bestselling book A TALE OF TWO CITIES: THE 2004 RED SOX-YANKEES RIVALRY AND THE WAR FOR THE PENNANT. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, Natalie, and their son, Alexander.

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Through an extraordinary ability to perform under pressure, David Ortiz has gone from toting the heavy burden of potential to being one of the most celebrated performers in baseball history.
Along the way, a baseball legend was born: BIG PAPI.
Raised in the Dominican Republic, signed by the Seattle Mariners, and released by the Minnesota Twins, David Ortiz landed in baseball-crazy Boston, of all places. Generally regarded as an underachiever to that point in his career, Ortiz blossomed into one of the most feared and adored sluggers in baseball while altering the course of the game's history, helping Boston win its first World Series in eighty-six years and thereby breaking the infamous "Curse of the Bambino."
Along the way, Ortiz established his place as a truly Ruthian figure in the annals of our national pastime: an imposing figure in the batter's box, yet an endearing man to the young, particularly in his native Dominican Republic, where he has focused his charitable efforts on improving the health of children. The son of two caring parents, and a loving father of three, Ortiz is a hero to many.
Now, in his memoir, the man affectionately known as "Big Papi" recounts his life from growing up in an impoverished area of the Dominican Republic (where baseball is king) to his ascension in Boston (where he became one). Ortiz discusses, in detail, his historic and record-setting performances as a member of the Red Sox, his exploding popularity, the challenges of playing in Boston, and life in the Red Sox clubhouse.
BIG PAPI is a unique memoir by a charismatic man who appeals to young and old, on the baseball field or off.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One
 
The Birth of Big papi
 
To be honest, I still laugh about it sometimes. I'll be out there on the field, warming up for a game or something, and somebody from the other team will come over and ask me: "What's up, Papi?" I might not even know the guy, might not even recognize him, but he knows me by my nickname. So I'll say hello back--"Wassup, dude?"--and then get back to my running or stretching or whatever. But inside, I'll be laughing.
 
I'm really not sure how it started, bro. I have no idea. After I got to Boston and started playing for the Red Sox, I would walk around the clubhouse and talk to guys, and I starting calling them papi. Some of my teammates did it, too. Someone like Manny Ramirez would walk by a reporter or someone whose name he didn't really know, and he would say things like, "How you doing, papi?" or "It's a beautiful day, papi!" and people would laugh. In the Dominican Republic, we use the word all the time, like Americans would use "buddy" or "pal," but it's more like "daddy" or "pops." It's just the way we talk. And in Boston, before we knew it, everybody on the team was calling everyone else "papi," and it wasn't too long before the name somehow belonged to me.
 
David Ortiz.
 
Big Papi.
 
Wherever I go now, bro, that's what people call me. I'm serious. Whenever I come out of the dugout before a game, if it's in winter ball or spring training or the playoffs, the fans all start screaming it. Even in the Dominican Republic, where anybody can be papi, that's what everybody calls me. Before the 2006 season, when we had the World Baseball Classic for the first time, I couldn't go anywhere without people calling out my name. There were teams there from the United States and the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Cuba. There were teams and fans from everywhere. And no matter where I went, no matter who we were playing against, the people all knew my name from seeing me on television or in the newspaper, or wherever.
 
It's funny, bro.
 
And it took me a little while to get used to it.
 
Since I got to Boston--since 2004, especially--a lot of things have changed. My life is totally different now. I'm still the same person--still my mom's baby--no matter how different things get. It can be hard for me now to go places, especially when I'm home in the Dominican, but I'm happier than I've ever been. All my life, I've had good people around me, people who gave me good advice and tried to teach me things. My mom. My pop. My wife, my family, and my friends. I've always been the kind of person who tries to focus on the good things, who tries to take the positive out of something. My mom was the same way, and my pop is, too, and my parents always tried to teach me to get better at things, to improve, to work at them and to keep trying, no matter what happens. That's what we should all try to do, bro--to keep getting better, no matter what we do.
 
So starting again this year, in 2007, that's my goal: to get better.
 
Since I got to Boston--even before--I feel like I've been getting better every year. People always ask me how that happened, if there's some secret or something, and I always tell them the same thing: It's confidence and hard work. In 2002, my final year playing for the Minnesota Twins, I hit 20 homers in about 400 at-bats, and I thought that was pretty good. In 2003, my first year in Boston, I hit 31 homers in about 450 at-bats. Since that time, when the Red Sox started playing me everyday, I've hit 41 homers (in 2004), 47 homers (in 2005) and 54 homers (in 2006). Basically, my RBIs have been going up, too. I even missed some time last year late in the season, so I know I can be better. Maybe I can hit 60 homers. Maybe I can hit 70. Maybe I can help the Red Sox win another World Series.
 
It sounds crazy, right? But let me tell you: If you set your mind to it, you can accomplish almost anything. You need the confidence and you need the support, but you can do it. Trust me.
 
The team--I think we're going to better this year, too. We had a lot of changes last year, a lot of new players, and we had a lot of injuries, too. We had a lot of guys who were playing in Boston for the very first time, and some of those guys had never played in the American League before. It takes a little while to come over to a new league, like those guys did, and to learn the pitchers, make adjustments, get used to everything. I know because I've played my whole career in the American League and it still happens with me. Every year, there are new guys in the league and new pitchers to learn, things like that. But the longer you're around, the more you know and the less you have to learn, and the easier it all gets.
 
Look at someone like Mike Lowell, bro. He's a smart dude who's been around awhile, but he never really played in the American League before 2006. He hit .280 with 20 home runs and 80 RBIs last season--which is a good year--and I bet you he'll be even better this year. I feel the same way about our young pitchers, guys like Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett. Papelbon is nasty, bro, and he's been nasty since the day he got to the big leagues. How much better can that kid get? I remember once when we were in Toronto in 2005, the dude pitched three innings in relief and he didn't give up a hit or a run. It was a game we had to win. It was late in the year and we were trying to make the playoffs, and we were having all kinds of problems with the bullpen. The kid came into the game--he was a rookie, bro--and it was like he'd been pitching in the big leagues his whole life. I remember the game because I hit a home run in the eleventh inning and we won, 6-5--it was my second homer of the game--and Pap got his first major-league win. I remember the reporters coming up to me after the game and asking me about him, and I remember telling them that Pap reminded me of Roger Clemens. And he does, bro. As long as that kid stays healthy, he's going to do great things.
 
I only wish I had that kind of confidence when I was a rookie.
 
Beckett, too, dude. You just watch. He's got great shit. He won sixteen games for us last year and he's only going to get better. He's only six months older than Papelbon, I think. He's still learning. Beckett pitched his whole career in the National League before coming to the Red Sox, so he didn't know the hitters or know the league, and the whole season was a learning experience for him. The American League is tough, bro. It's a lot different than the National League. You've got big dudes like me in the middle of the lineup and you can't make mistakes over here. It's just different. A pitcher can get to the end of the lineup in the National League and he can pitch around guys, save pitches, do things like that because the other pitcher is coming to bat. But you can't do that kind of stuff in the American League, and it takes time to learn.
 
You have to have patience with people, bro.
 
Trust me.
 
I'm proof.
 
Even though we missed the playoffs last year, let me tell you: We didn't have a terrible year. We had a lot of injuries, especially late in the year, and we have a lot of talent. One of the good things about playing in a place like Boston is we're always going to have talent, no matter what, and that's a big difference from a place like Minnesota, where I played the first four or five years of my career. In Boston, we have to compete against the New York Yankees every year and we...

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Verlag
St Martins Pr
Erscheinungsdatum
2007
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0312366337
ISBN 13 
9780312366339
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
288
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