David Ortiz has hit 503 homers in the majors. The first came in 1997, when Ortiz was just 21 years old, in his sixth-ever game in the big leagues. At breakfast on Thursday morning, Ortiz tweeted that his father still had the first of those 503 baseballs Ortiz has launched over the fence in the majors:
My first home run ball in the big league my dad show it to me in the middle of a breakfast pic.twitter.com/QdhKAzz1IB
— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) February 18, 2016
Love that this exists, love that Papi Senior still has the ball, and love that it says "Big Show" on it in regular pen underneath the deep blue "First HR" designation. I don't know if it's in reference to Ortiz hitting a homer in the big leagues aka The Show, or if it's an early iteration of an Ortiz nickname that would eventually become the one we know and love. Hey, maybe that's where Paul Wight got the idea after leaving WCW.
There's an even more heartwarming side, though, as David actually dedicated this ball to his dad back in the day, and shared what it said to boot:
l dedicated that ball to him because all the effort he put together to make who lm.#spanish#translator pic.twitter.com/y8PMwfrv9A
— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) February 18, 2016
When Ortiz hits his final major-league homer this year -- preferably in the World Series -- let's hope he dedicates that one to his father, too.