David Américo Ortiz Arias was born on 18 November 1975 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the eldest of four children, and grew up idolising fellow Dominican pitchers Ramón and Pedro Martínez, dreaming that baseball could become his path to a different future.
Ortiz signed with the Seattle Mariners organisation as a teenager and was later traded to the Minnesota Twins, where he spent several seasons before being released and signing as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox in 2003, a move that would transform both his career and the franchise's fortunes.
Nicknamed 'Big Papi', Ortiz became the most feared clutch hitter in baseball during his prime, delivering a string of dramatic postseason home runs that helped carry the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years in 2004, followed by further championships in 2007 and 2013.
Ortiz's larger-than-life personality and leadership made him the emotional centre of the Red Sox clubhouse for two decades, and his 2013 speech at Fenway Park following the Boston Marathon bombing, declaring 'this is our fucking city', became an iconic moment of civic solidarity.
Ortiz retired in 2016 with 541 career home runs and three World Series championships, and in 2022 was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, cementing his status as one of the most beloved designated hitters in the sport's history.
- 541 career home runs
- Three-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox
- 10-time MLB All-Star
- 2013 World Series Most Valuable Player
- Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, 2022
- Being released by one team does not preclude stardom elsewhere. Ortiz was let go by the Minnesota Twins before becoming one of the most celebrated hitters in Red Sox history.
- Leadership extends beyond the field of play. His post-bombing Fenway Park speech showed how an athlete's voice can carry weight far beyond sport.