David “Big Papi” Ortiz is one of the most loved and respected Hispanic athletes outside of sports, his contribution to the world is unbreakable. Ortiz has inspired me and other kids to chase our dreams and goals no matter what kind of obstacles are in front of us. At the beginning of his professional career in 1997, David was battling a lot of wrist injuries and gaining weight problems, which made the Twins coaches switch him to a designated hitter in 1999. The pace of every game was too fast for him to play on the field.
After adjusting to a permanent position Ortiz became less valuable for his team after batting .137, he was sent to Triple-A. Following the same season, Ortiz was called up to the Major Leagues again in September 1999 but was still struggling to put the ball in play after he struck out 12-20 at-bats without recording a single hit in that span. His team doubted his talents and capacity to help the team clinch the playoffs. By 2000 the Twins were one of the worst teams in league history with 3 consecutive seasons with over 90 losses. After his first horrendous seasons, Ortiz seemed to improve in 01 and 02. But, his life had a turning point in the 2002 off-season when his mother passed away from a car accident in the Dominican Republic. Knowing that your mother isn’t going to see you shine at your best level motivated him to become better. Regardless of the fact he was also dealing with a knee injury. However, Ortiz continued to have another disappointing season for his caliber and was released from the Twins the same year.
In addition, Papi earned $1,210,000 with the Twins throughout his first few years, and Ortiz got a chance to play for the Boston Red Sox via his fellow friend and future teammate Pedro Martinez, who called multiple Red Sox team officials to request that the team should sign Ortiz. David ended up signing a non-guaranteed contract with the Red Sox in the 2003-2004 season. During the first 2 months of the season, Ortiz wasn’t playing constantly which frustrated him because, within his first at-bats, he was having similar struggles as when he was with the Twins, even though the current player starting over him was batting .185 and Ortiz was hitting .275 which had shown more improvement from his fewest seasons.
On June 1st, Ortiz finally had his chance and from that point, he never looked back and became the great player he is now, hitting 21 home runs in 63 games and walking off the rival team New York Yankees which made him memorable for his team and the entire major league. David finished the season with 31 home runs, 101 runs batted in, and a .288 batting average, helping his team clinch 5th in the American League with a couple of Most Valuable Player awards voting as the Red Sox qualified for the postseason.
Even though the team lost in the first round of the playoffs, Ortiz was one of the most improved players in the league. Following the 2004 season, he turned out to be a superstar and one of the best players in the league winning 3 World Series titles, Home Run Derby champ, WS MVP and ALCS MVP. Papi began to earn more money after becoming the star of his team, in 2008 he signed his max contract for 3 years which was $52,000,000. Finishing with $115,122,000 in career earnings following his retirement in 2016.
Most of that money was sent to charity and the beginning of his children’s fund started, where food, allowance, and shelter were given out to those who needed it. In February 2005 Ortiz opened a children’s fund that provides essential help for children in the Dominican Republic and New England who cannot afford health services, improving cardiac care. The reason why Big Papi had this idea was because he was reminded of his childhood and imagined himself being in one of those kids’ positions or one of his children in the same position and it motivated him to help others. To me, he’s one of the greatest baseball players all over the world statistically but his contribution outside of baseball has never been outshining especially in DR where most kids don’t grow up in a nice living environment, and Papi being aware of where he came from and knowing the barrier he had coming up did not stop him from becoming the person he is right now.
Ortiz has been a role model to me and many others because coming out of a third-world country that has a below-average economy and making a name for himself even moving to a whole new country with a language barrier to learning and overcoming those obstacles is something that is not seen every day. His come-up story motivates me to always believe in myself and never give up because God is willing to give everybody a chance to make something out of nothing when the time is right.
Ortiz was one of the few baseball stars to shine despite the fact he was overweight and “lazy”. No other baseball team saw him as a pan-out prospect until the Minnesota Twins.
