Big Papi, otherwise known as David Ortiz, has just earned admission into a very exclusive club. Only the legends of the game of baseball are considered for membership.
The Boston Red Sox are one of the oldest and most fabled franchises in professional big league baseball. Club records honored on the walls of Fenway Park rival any others in the game. It is a place of legends and dreams and the home of the defending World Series Champions.
David Ortiz hit two home runs against the Houston Astros last week, but it was the second one that punched his ticket into the club that few will ever attain. David Ortiz hit his 400th major league home run with the Red Sox in that game and joined Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski as the only other Red Sox players to hit 400.
Big Papi, as Ortiz is popularly known, slammed one into the first row seats out in center field in the third inning to break the four hundred mark and become just the third player in the history of the Boston Red Sox to do so.
Ortiz told the press after the game, “It’s an honor to be mentioned with those legends that were with the Red Sox. When you come to this organization to play, you’re not expecting to be mentioned with those guys.”
But get ready David, because there’s more of the same on the way. Ortiz is still a long ways from laying down his bat, but you can bet that there is already a place at the table in Cooperstown awaiting him when that time comes around.
Red Sox manager John Farrell commented, “He’s in rare company with those two other guys he’s linked to.” And so he will be, forever linked to two of the greatest players to ever put on a Red Sox uniform….or any uniform for that matter.
Actually, if you count the time that Ortiz spent in Minnesota, he has a total of 459 career home runs. Ted Williams ended up with 521 homers, a record that many feel will never be broken and Carl Yastrzemski had 452. Both of those perennial All-Stars spent their entire careers calling Fenway Park their home field.
After Ortiz hit his 400th homer in the third inning, he came back with a 2 run double through the gap. That’s when they sent in a pinch runner for Big Papi, who walked proudly off the field tipping his batting helmet to a standing crowd and a roaring ovation.
