Boston is the best city for sports fans. I quickly Googled best cities for sports fans and the first three articles I clicked on ranked Boston #1.
Every sports town has its heroes. We follow them on Twitter/Instagram, buy oversized clothing with their name and number on the back, and we put ourselves in the shoes at the winning moment.
In baseball, there have been many heroes in its 100 year plus history. Starting with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams through Bo Jackson, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey, Jr., The Bash Brothers to Mike Trout, Max Verlander, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jason DeGrom.
But there is one contemporary player whose popularity is the stratosphere, David "Big Papi" Ortiz. I cannot think of another Red Sox player who enjoys the same amount of popularity.
His MLB career started with the Minnesota Twins in 1997 and played with them until 2002 when he was cut from the team. It was a chance meeting in 2003 when Ortiz bumped into Red Sox pitcher, Pedro Martinez. Martinez remember Ortiz from a home run hit off of him. Martinez immediately contacted team officials to have them sign Ortiz. The rest is history! Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end and Ortiz retired in 2016.
Hall of Fame numbers aside, it is his outgoing and gregarious personality which made him so popular and his speech after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings propelled him to god-like in Red Sox Nation. Crushing 20 walk-off hits certainly did not hurt, two of those were home runs in the playoffs
MLB Career Stats
Home Runs: 541
Doubles: 632
RBIs: 1768
Hits: 2472
Batting Average: .286
Clutch Hits: 20
MLB Awards
World Series Champ: 3
All-Star Team: 10
Home Run Derby: 1
Silver Slugger: 7
RBI Leader: 3
David Ortiz returned to Boston in June of 2017 to have his number retired.
Next stop, Cooperstown, NY!
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