David Ortiz
Ortiz pointing to the sky after hitting a home run
Boston Red Sox – No. 34
Designated hitter / First baseman
Born: (1975-11-18) November 18, 1975 (age 36) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
MLB debut
September 24, 1997 for the Minnesota Twins
Career statistics (through June 1, 2012)
Batting average	.285
Home runs	391
Hits	1,823
Runs batted in	1,303
Teams
Minnesota Twins (1997–2002) Boston Red Sox (2003–present)
Career highlights and awards
The Sporting News Designated Hitter of the Decade (2009) Sports Illustrated MLB All-Decade Team (2009) 2× World Series champion (2004, 2007) ALCS MVP (2004) 7× All-Star (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011) 5× Silver Slugger Award (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011) Hank Aaron Award (2005) 6× Edgar Martínez Award (2003–2007, 2011) AL home run leader (2006) AL RBI leader (2005, 2006) MLB record for home runs by DH (345) MLB record for RBI by DH (1,131) Home Run Derby winner (2010) Roberto Clemente Award (2011)

David Américo Ortiz Arias (born November 18, 1975), nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. Previously, Ortiz played with the Minnesota Twins from 1997 until 2002. Ortiz is a seven-time All-Star and holds the Red Sox single season record for home runs in a regular season with 54, set during the 2006 season. In 2005, Red Sox ownership presented him with a plaque proclaiming Ortiz "the greatest clutch-hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox".^[1][2]

Early career[link]

Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins (1992–2002)[link]

Ortiz shares a word with Toby Hall, then of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Ortiz graduated from Estudia Espallat High School in the Dominican Republic and in 1992 he was signed by the Seattle Mariners who listed him as "David Arias". He played for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Mariners farm team, until 1996, when he was traded to the Minnesota Twins as the player to be named later in an earlier trade for Dave Hollins. When he arrived in Minnesota, he informed the team that he preferred to be listed as "David Ortiz."

He made his Twins debut in September 1997. For a few years, he was moved back and forth between the Twins and their minor league affiliate in Connecticut, the New Britain Rock Cats. The Twins advanced to the American League Championship Series that year, where they lost to the Anaheim Angels. Despite showing flashes of talent, Ortiz's time with the Twins will be remembered as a series of injuries and inconsistency both in the field and at the plate. Ortiz suffered wrist injuries in both 1998 and 2001. He continued to experience knee problems in early 2002 that plagued him throughout the season, despite hitting 32 doubles, 20 home runs and 75 RBIs in 125 games. He was released by the Twins after the season. In six seasons with the Twins, Ortiz hit 58 home runs and 238 RBI.^[3]

Boston Red Sox (2003–Present)[link]

2003[link]

On January 22, Ortiz signed a free agent contract with the Boston Red Sox. He played sparingly in the first two months of the season, primarily pinch hitting and starting occasionally as a DH. On June 1, manager Grady Little benched Jeremy Giambi and inserted Ortiz in the starting lineup as the full time DH. In July Ortiz hit 8 home runs, and in August he had 11. He finished the season batting .288 with 31 home runs and 101 RBI. He finished 5th in the American League MVP voting.

In the postseason he struggled in the ALDS against the Oakland A's until Game 4 when he hit a 2 run double in the bottom of the 8th inning off of closer Keith Foulke to give the Red Sox the lead. In the ALCS against the New York Yankees, Ortiz had 2 home runs and 6 RBI as Boston lost in 7 games.

2004[link]

Ortiz was a major force in leading the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years and ending the Curse of the Bambino. During the regular season, Ortiz hit 41 home runs and had 139 RBI while batting .301 with an OPS of .983. He finished 2nd in the American League in both home runs and RBI. He was voted onto the All-Star team for the first time in his career. He finished 4th in American League MVP voting.

In the playoffs, Ortiz hit .409 with 5 home runs and 23 RBI. He had multiple game-winning hits to help Boston advance to and ultimately win the World Series. He hit a walk-off home run off of Jarrod Washburn to win the American League Division Series against the Angels. He then hit a walk-off home run against the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the ALCS and a walk-off single in Game 5 during the American League Championship Series. His post-season heroics earned him MVP honors for the ALCS, the first time a DH had ever been named MVP.

On May 28, Ortiz hit his 100th career home run, a grand slam, off of Joel Pineiro of the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park.

Ortiz was suspended for 3 games after being ejected following an incident on July 16 in a game against the Angels in which he threw several bats onto the field that came close to hitting umpires Bill Hohn and Mark Carlson.

2005[link]

Ortiz hit 47 home runs and had 148 RBI while batting .300 with an OPS of 1.001. He led the American League in RBI finished 2nd in home runs and 3rd in OPS. He finished 2nd in the American League MVP voting while leading the Red Sox to their 3rd consecutive playoff appearance.

2006[link]

Ortiz hit 54 home runs (setting a new Red Sox record) and had 137 RBI, while batting .287 with an OPS of 1.049. He led the American League in both home runs and RBI, winning the home run crown by 10 over the 2nd-place finisher Jermaine Dye. He finished 3rd in the American League MVP voting.

On June 29, Ortiz hit his 200th career home run against Duaner Sanchez of the New York Mets at Fenway Park.

On September 20, Ortiz tied Jimmie Foxx's single season Red Sox home run record of 50 set in 1938; in the 6th inning against Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Boof Bonser.

On September 21, Ortiz broke Foxx's single season Red Sox home run record by hitting his 51st home run off his former teammate, Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins. The home run came on a 1–0 pitch in the first inning and it was his 44th home run of the season as a designated hitter, breaking his own American League single-season record.

Health scare[link]

Ortiz said he began feeling ill between games of a day-night doubleheader on August 18, 2006, against New York. Between games, he had gone home and tried to sleep but could not. Ortiz was reportedly driven to the hospital by a team assistant. An irregular heartbeat was the cause for the stress according to his doctors. Ortiz would not originally talk about his condition, but opened up to the media on August 25, reportedly saying "I'm a healthy son of a [gun]."^[4]

On August 28, Ortiz had recurring symptoms from his irregular heartbeat and was a last minute scratch in the Red Sox game at Oakland. Manager Terry Francona and General Manager Theo Epstein agreed that Ortiz fly back to Boston where he was reevaluated and cleared to play again in early September.

2007[link]

Ortiz once again played a major role as he helped lead the Red Sox to their seventh World Series title. Despite playing the entire season with a torn meniscus in his right knee as well as nagging injuries to his shoulder and quadriceps, he finished the year hitting .332 with 35 home runs and 117 RBI. In addition, he hit 52 doubles, led the American League in extra base hits and had an OPS of 1.066.

In the postseason Ortiz batted .370 with 3 home runs and 10 RBI.

2008[link]

Ortiz started slowly after suffering a wrist injury which caused him to miss several weeks. He played in only 109 games and finished the season hitting .264 with just 23 home runs and 89 RBI, his lowest totals since joining the Red Sox.

Ortiz at bat in 2009

2009[link]

Ortiz struggled early in the season, hitting only .206 with no home runs and 30 strikeouts in his first 34 games. On May 22, Ortiz hit his first home run of the season off Brett Cecil of the Toronto Blue Jays, ending his career-high 178 homerless at-bat streak.^[5] In June, Ortiz broke out of his slump by hitting 8 home runs with 22 RBIs. Ortiz had 9 home runs in both July and August.

On July 9, Ortiz hit his 300th career home run against Luke Hochevar of the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.

On September 17, Ortiz hit his 270th career home run as a DH off of Jose Arredondo of the Los Angeles Angels breaking the all time record held by Frank Thomas.

Ortiz finished the season with 28 home runs and 99 RBI.

2010[link]

Ortiz hit .270 with 32 home runs and 102 RBI. He also won the Home Run Derby.

2011[link]

On April 2, Ortiz set the record for RBI by a designated hitter with 1,004 passing Edgar Martinez.

On May 21, Ortiz became only the fifth player to hit 300 home runs as a member of the Red Sox, joining Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, and Dwight Evans.

On July 8, during a game against the Baltimore Orioles, three pitches were thrown inside close to Ortiz by Kevin Gregg. Ortiz took exception of the third ball that was close to him. Warnings were issued to both dugouts. When Ortiz popped out on the 3-0 count, Kevin Gregg taunted Ortiz and was ejected. Ortiz charged at Gregg and started a bench-clearing brawl. Both players were ejected for the incident and were each sentenced to a four game suspension.

Ortiz finished the season hitting .309 with 29 home runs and 96 RBI.

On October 20, Major League Baseball announced that Ortiz was the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award.

Performance-enhancing drug positive test result in 2003[link]

On July 30, 2009, The New York Times reported that Ortiz and then-teammate Manny Ramirez were among a group of roughly 100 major league players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs during 2003 survey testing.^[6] Five months before the Times allegations surfaced, Ortiz stated in an interview that players who tested positive for steroids should be suspended for an entire season.^[6] Before the Red Sox's game that afternoon, Ortiz declined to comment on the report, saying, "I'm not talking about that anymore."^[6] Afterwards, he confirmed he had tested positive and promised to speak with the media once he "[got] to the bottom of" the matter.^[7]

Ten days later, Ortiz held a press conference before a game at Yankee Stadium and denied ever buying or using steroids but suggested the positive test might have been due to his use of supplements and vitamins at the time.^[8] When asked which supplements he had been taking, Ortiz said he did not know.^[9] Ortiz was accompanied at the press conference by the general counsel of the players union, Michael Weiner. Because the list of players who tested positive was seized as part of a government investigation and is currently under court-ordered seal pending the outcome of litigation, Weiner said the players union was unable to provide Ortiz with any details about his test result, including what substance he tested positive for.

Personal life[link]

Each time Ortiz crosses the plate after hitting a home run, he looks up and points both index fingers to the sky in tribute to his mother Angela Rosa Arias, who died in a car crash in January 2002 at the age of 46.^[10] Ortiz also has a tattoo of his mother on his biceps.

Ortiz and his wife Tiffany have three children. Since marrying Tiffany, he has become a fan of the Green Bay Packers (his wife hails from Kaukauna, Wisconsin, a town in between the cities of Green Bay and Appleton).^[11]

On June 11, 2008, Ortiz became a United States citizen at John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.^[12][13]

Reebok sponsorship[link]

In April 2007, sporting goods company Reebok debuted the Big Papi 10M Mid Baseball cleat at a party in Canton, Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of Reebok International Ltd. At the party, Ortiz was quoted as saying, "Reebok's loyalty and friendship have always made me feel right at home and we are true partners in every sense of the word,... ." Ortiz first used the cleat during the 2007 MLB All Star Game in San Francisco, California.^[14]

Charity work[link]

The David Ortiz Children's Fund was founded in 2007 to support a range of causes that Ortiz believes in. The Fund allows Ortiz the flexibility to donate to those children are in the most need at any given time, from Boston to the Dominican Republic and beyond. Ortiz released his own Charity Wine label in 2008 with all the proceeds going to the David Ortiz Children's Fund. The wine called Vintage Papi proceeded to raise $150,000 for charity.^[15]

Trademark fight with Jay-Z[link]

In April 2010, rapper and producer Jay-Z and his business partner Juan Perez initiated a trademark infringement case against Big Papi's night club 40/40 located in his native Dominican Republic. The suit claimed that Big Papi's night club name was chosen to take advantage of the fame of the record producers chain of sports clubs. The term 40/40 in baseball refers to the roughly 2 score ballplayers in the Major Leagues who have both 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2010/04/jayz-sures-red-sox-big-papi-david-ortiz-4040-club-name.html

Career highlights[link]

• The Sporting News Designated Hitter of the Decade (2009)
• Sports Illustrated MLB All-Decade Team (2009)
• Member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox team that won the World Series.
• Member of the 2007 Boston Red Sox team that won the World Series.
• American League Championship Series MVP (2004)
• 7-time All-Star (2004–2008, 2010–2011)
• 2005 Hank Aaron Award winner
• 6-time winner of the Edgar Martínez Award (2003–2007. 2011)
• 5-time winner of the Silver Slugger Award (2004–2007, 2011)
• Top 5 MVP vote-receiver five times (5th, 2003; 4th, 2004; 2nd, 2005; 3rd, 2006; 4th, 2007)
• Led the American League in extra base hits 3 times (2004, 2005, 2007)
• Led the American League in Home Runs (2006)
• Led the American League in Runs Batted In (2005, 2006)
• American League Player of the Month for September 2005, July 2006, and May 2010.
• Red Sox single-season home-run leader (54; 2006)
• Tied with Babe Ruth for AL single-season home-run record in road games (32; 2006)
• First player ever to hit two walk-off home runs in the same postseason (against the Angels (ALDS) and Yankees (ALCS), 2004)
• First player in Red Sox history to hit 40 or more home runs in three consecutive seasons (2004–2006)
• Set new record for home runs by a DH in 2005 (43), then again in 2006 (47)
• 6 seasons of at least 30 Home Runs and 100 RBI (2003–2007, 2010)
• Tied with Billy Hatcher for all-time post-season consecutive on-base streak (10)
• 85 extra-base hits or more for four consecutive years, something only 2 other players--Lou Gehrig (5) and Sammy Sosa (4)--have ever done.^[16]
• Ortiz's home run total increased each year from 2000–2006, starting with 10 home runs, and ending with 54.
• Became all time DH home run leader on September 15, 2009 by hitting his 270th as a Designated Hitter.
• Won 2010 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby in the final round against Hanley Ramirez.
• Has hit 10 career walk-off HR, the highest of any active player, and 20 walk-off hits total. He is currently 2 HR behind Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, the career leaders in walk-off HR.^[17]
• On April 2, 2011 Ortiz became MLB's all time RBI leader by a Designated Hitter.
• On July 27, 2011 Ortiz hit his 1,000th RBI with the Boston Red Sox.
• 2011 Roberto Clemente Award winner.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: David Ortiz

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: David Ortiz

	Biography portal
	Baseball portal
	Dominican Republic portal

• 50 home run club
• List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• List of Major League Baseball home run champions

References[link]

External links[link]

• David Ortiz's MLB.com site
• David Ortiz On ESPN.com
• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Ten Questions for David Ortiz on Time.com (a division of Time Magazine)
• Stephan and Big Papi

King David
King of Israel
Statue of David by Nicolas Cordier, in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
Reign	over Judah c. 1010–1003 BC; over Judah and Israel c. 1003–970 BC
Born	c. 1040 BC
Birthplace	Bethlehem
Died	c. 970 BC
Place of death	Jerusalem
Predecessor	Saul (Judah), Ishbaal (Israel)
Successor	Solomon
Royal House	House of David (new house)
Father	Jesse
Mother	not named in the Bible; identified by the Talmud as Nitzevet, daughter of Adael

David (Hebrew: דָּוִד, דָּוִיד, Modern David Tiberian Dāwîḏ; ISO 259-3 Dawid; Strong's Daveed; beloved; Arabic: داوود‎ or داود‎ ^[a] Dāwūd) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and, according to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, an ancestor of Jesus. David is seen as a major Prophet in Islamic traditions. ^[1][2] His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040–970 BC, his reign over Judah c. 1010–1003 BC,^{[citation needed]} and his reign over the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1003–970 BC.^{[citation needed]} The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan stele records "House of David", which some take as confirmation of the existence in the mid-9th century BC of a Judean royal dynasty called the "House of David".

David is very important to Jewish, Christian and Islamic doctrine and culture. In Judaism, David, or David HaMelekh, is the King of Israel, and the Jewish people. Jewish tradition maintains that a direct descendant of David will be the Messiah. In Islam, he is known as Dawud, considered to be a prophet and the king of a nation. He is depicted as a righteous king, though not without faults, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician, and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms.