David Ortiz Returning To Minnesota For One Final Time
BOSTON (CBS) -- For one final time, David Ortiz will return to where it all began as the Red Sox open a three-game set against the Twins in Minnesota on Friday night.
With Ortiz retiring after this season, this weekend will be his final trip to Minneapolis. It's where Ortiz, well before evolving into "Big Papi," got his first shot in the majors.
Ortiz was originally acquired by the Twins as a "player to be named later" from the Seattle Mariners in a 1996 swap for third baseman Dave Hollins. He made his Major League debut September 2, 1997, flying out to left field as a pinch hitter in an Interleague matchup against the Chicago Cubs in his only at-bat. He appeared in 15 games that season, and 86 the following year when he clubbed nine homers in 278 at-bats.
But Ortiz spent most of his 1999 season in Triple-A, and despite hitting 48 homers for the Twins from 2000-02, he was released in December 2002.
"I ain't going to lie to you, I was crushed at the time," Ortiz told USA Today's Bob Nightengale. "Minnesota was the only thing I had known. I was leaving my boys. But I kept doing what I've done my whole life, and that was proving people wrong. I was always the guy that had to go through the toughest time to get where I need to be."
His "prove them wrong" tour began about a month later, when Theo Epstein and the Red Sox signed him as a backup plan to Jeremy Giambi. By June, the slugger was Boston's everyday DH, and the rest is history. He formed one of the most-feared duos in baseball with fellow Boston slugger Manny Ramirez, had clutch hit after clutch hit during Boston's 2004 World Series run, and has earned two more championship rings along the way, playing integral roles in each. His 519 (and counting) career homers have him a serious candidate for Cooperstown in five years.
And Ortiz said his incredible career may have never happened had the Twins not made one of baseball's biggest roster blunders.
"The thing that helped me was getting away from that turf. I got to the big leagues when I was 21, and a year later, I had so much pain in my body because of that turf. It was the worst. I went to Fenway, and the pain was gone," he told Nightengale.
"What was funny is that when I played in Minnesota, they didn't even know they had a major-league baseball team. I used to walk around the street and people didn't know who the hell we were. Nobody used to come to the Metrodome to watch games. Going to the Metrodome to watch a game was like sacrificing one of your kids," Ortiz added.
The Twins and their fans certainly know who Ortiz is now, as they've watched him torch their team in a different jersey for 14 years. Ortiz owns a .323 average with 20 homers in his 67 games against his former team, and he no longer has to worry about that painful turf of the Metrodome. Minnesota probably wishes that less-than-ideal playing surface was still around for this weekend's series; Ortiz has nine homers in his 69 at-bats at Target Field.
But even though Ortiz has tormented his former club, they'll be honoring the slugger with a pregame ceremony this weekend. He'll have some more swag to add to his collection, though something from the Twins will no doubt remind him of how things could have gone very different.
"Looking back, everything worked out pretty damn good," says Ortiz.
And those of you who think there is no way a guy hitting .338 with 16 homers at the age of 40 is going to really retire, Ortiz is adamant that his mind is made up that this season is his last.
"Physically, I could do it, but mentally, I'm exhausted," he said. "Hopefully, everything keeps going well this year, because right now, everything is going perfect."