Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits by David Ortiz (with Tony Massarotti)

As the title would imply, this is an autobiography of Red Sox

slugger David Ortiz. It chronicles his life growing into the most feared clutch hitter in baseball. It follows him as a youngster trying to get a break, through his early years with the Twins, and his stellar stint with the Boston Red Sox. It also includes sidebar interviews with Pedro Martinez, Torii Hunter, Theo Epstein, among others. The result is the definitive tale of the creation of Big Papi.

As with many autobiographies of sports figures, you have to deal with the fact that they’re sports figures and not writers. One day I’ll figure out what the “with” or “as told to” person does to get his name on the cover. It certainly wasn’t correcting grammar or word choices. It also appears that this book may have been translated from Spanish. That may explain the overuse of words such as “killin’” or “Bro”. In any event, you have to get past the writing to enjoy this book. Once you do that, it’s a great book. It fills in a lot of holes in Papi’s career. Since Papi pretty much burst on the scene when he got to the Red Sox, not much was reported of his earlier career. This is a chance to learn it all. It explains what goes through a person’s mind what they get released, or signed. It gives views inside a clubhouse, and a team as a whole. It’s also always nice to read about the 2004 World Series run. I never tire of that. All an all, it was a book I had trouble putting down.

Rating: 3 bases.