David Ortiz Passionately Thanks Minnesota Fans Ahead Of Final Twins Series

David Ortiz didn’t become the legendary baseball figure he is today until after he joined the Boston Red Sox in 2003. But his major league journey began long before that.

Ortiz got his big league start in Minnesota, breaking through with the Twins in 1997 and playing 455 games for the team over the next six seasons. He grew up a great deal during those years, both as a ballplayer and as a Dominican Republic native adapting to a new country and language.

This week’s Red Sox-Twins series, which begins Thursday night at Fenway Park, will be Ortiz’s last against his former team before he retires this fall. Ahead of the series opener, the 40-year-old slugger reminisced in The Players’ Tribune about his time in Minnesota and thanked Twins fans for supporting and welcoming him.

“This week is my last series with the Twins,” Ortiz wrote. “So I want to thank the fans in Minnesota, because they were really good to me and my wife. My career didn’t work out the way I planned with the Twins, but I don’t have anything but love for the people there.

“What was great about Minnesota was how nice everybody was to me during my time there. If we went out to a restaurant early on, when my English pronunciation wasn’t so great, everybody was super nice to me. Nobody ever made me feel like an outsider, and I’ll always appreciate that.”

Ortiz also touched on his friendship with former Twins star Torii Hunter, recalled how Sammy Sosa chased down his first big league hit and shared a few hilarious anecdotes involving a soda machine, a chicken sandwich and “The Silence of the Lambs.”