David Ortiz became the 27th member of Major League Baseball’s 500 home run club this season, and now, the Boston Red Sox slugger finally has time to reflect on it.
Ortiz reached the milestone Sept. 12 against the Tampa Bay Rays, hitting Nos. 499 and 500 in the same game. And Big Papi thinks moving to Boston after being released by the Minnesota Twins played a big part in getting there.
“I was coming through the minor leagues as a power hitter,” Ortiz said in an interview with the team’s website. “Things changed when I got to the big leagues a little bit in Minnesota, but once I got here, they gave me the freedom to swing the bat like I normally used to do, and then I figured that I was going to continue hitting home runs.”
Ortiz hit No. 500 at Tropicana Field, rather than at home at Fenway Park. But while Ortiz would have preferred accomplishing the feat in front of his fans, there’s no way he would have taken it easy anywhere else.
“You want to do it in front of your home crowd,” Ortiz said. “There’s no question about that. But that’s not something you can say and do. You play at home an amount of games and you play on the road, and you go with the same attitude everywhere.”
Still, it was “a very special moment” for the 39-year-old, especially because it was something he could share with his father.
“I have a lot of tough moments in my career,” Ortiz said. “He has been by my side just telling me how to put up with things, and my dad was one of the happiest men on planet earth once I got done with that.”
And at the end of the day, joining the 500 club wasn’t necessarily too tough for Big Papi. He just likes to have fun when he’s on the field.
“I don’t feel pressure playing baseball, man,” Ortiz said.
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Thumbnail photo via Robert Mayer/USA TODAY Sports Images
