Papi

Today David Ortiz is being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Next to Willie Mays, my favorite ballplayer.  So many good memories.  An outstanding, clutch, and inspirational ballplayer.  Big Papi changed the nature of Red Sox baseball - from a team that always found a way to lose to a team you expected to win.  He is deservedly the most popular player in Red Sox history.

2004 will always remain the most memorable season of my life, and attending the victory parade an unforgettable moment.  Mrs THC and I were at his last regular season game and retirement ceremony on October 2, 2016 but the 2013 season is hard to top for memorable moments, from Papi's speech in Fenway after the Boston Marathon bombing, through a great season and then came the playoffs.  

Against the Tigers, the Sox and Papi were struggling, until he hit that grand slam to tie Game 2, and after that the Sox were unstoppable.  In the World Series, David hit an unbelievable .625 with an OPS of .760, and I was fortunate to be in the bleachers at Game 6 when the Sox won the series at home for the first time since 1918.  But my favorite moment of that Series was in Game 4, with the Sox down two games to one, in the fifth inning, Ortiz gathered his teammates around him for a pep talk, something very, very rare to see in a baseball game.  In the top of the 6th inning, Johnny Gomes hit a three run homer to put the Sox ahead and they won the game and the next two to become champions.