I bought this for Dave a couple of years ago for Christmas when it first came out. I started reading it last winter and finally finished it this week!
Papi is my absolute fave Red Sox player after Manny and Mookie. Of course Manny no longer plays for the Red Sox, Papi is now retired and Mookie hopefully won't be traded.
SUMMARY
This is a memoir and very well written minus the over abundance of the "f " word.
David Ortiz known as Big Papi or just Papi is a baseball icon. He's probably one of the most famous baseball players ever to play the all American sport.
Papi was on the Red Sox team for a little over 14 years after starting out with the Minnesota Twins. He helped make the Red Sox go from "never wins" to "always wins". He made Boston and the Red Sox team his home, his work place, and his legacy. He is known to have said at the first game at Fenway after the horrible tragedy of the Marathon Bombings on Patriot's Day 2013 that "this is our F-@+* City". and no one got upset by that!! Because he helped make and embody "Boston Strong".
In this memoir, we see how he and Tiffany (his wife) meet and about their relationship as he becomes one of America's most well known baseball players.
He talks about growing up poor in the Dominican Republic; about how homesick he was when he first got to the United States to play ball in Arizona. He talks about his time with the Twins and then his unlikely arrival in Boston.
We get to see many of his accomplishments and failures...his trials and triumphs...in these pages. We read of his career with the Red Sox and all the milestones he participated in and most especially the feelings and thoughts after bringing the Red Sox to World Series victories in 2004, 2007 and 2013.
He retired at age 40.
He was a champion who "rallied a team, a city, and a sport in a way that no one will ever forget."
MY THOUGHTS
Excellent memoir and I loved the photos included! I also enjoyed reading this thoughts on God.
It is actually a quick read but I read so much fiction and prefer fiction over non-fiction so that's really why it took me almost a year to complete this book. It did get bogged down for me in spots when he would go into detail about the more technical stuff regarding baseball, the management and the other players or other teams in the USA.
Overall, this is an excellent book for a Red Sox or Boston fan.
I highly recommend it for ages 17 and older (due to mature content/language)
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
2 comments:
My oldest son LOVES baseball. Might be a good gift for him! Thanks for the review!
I love reading a good memoir. I read Albert Pujol's book a few years ago and it was so good. This year I read Cal Ripken's book, "Just Show Up" (which is a personal theme of mine anyway) and got a lot out of it. Like you, I don't really need all the technical jargon about baseball. :) But the real life things I enjoy.
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