{"id":1605,"date":"2011-02-24T23:57:29","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T04:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2011-02-26T09:02:38","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T14:02:38","slug":"the-littlest-red-sox-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/24\/the-littlest-red-sox-star\/","title":{"rendered":"The Littlest Red Sox Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 24, 2011 – Ft. Myers<\/h3>\n

My second day of Red Sox workouts again began early in the morning.\u00a0 We were in good position to watch as the players took the field, and I successfully called both Bobby Jenks and Lars Anderson over to sign.\u00a0 One thing I was happy to see was that Big Papi was joined by his 6-year-old son, D\u2019Angelo.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen D\u2019Angelo hanging out with his father\u2019s teammates during batting practice at Fenway before, and my parents had told me how he had posed for pictures with fans and signed autographs (he writes \u201cD34\u201d) at some of the earlier workouts before I flew down.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby

Bobby Jenks signs autographs on his way out to practice.<\/p><\/div>\n

As usual, after they stretched out, the players split up to the different fields to work on defensive drills.\u00a0 I headed over to where the infielders were taking ground balls.\u00a0 But everywhere I went throughout the day, D\u2019Angelo was the star.\u00a0 He was dressed in full uniform (road grays today) and followed his father around from drill to drill, joining in whenever possible.\u00a0 He stretched with them on Field 2, doing all the different exercises, and then went over to Field 3 where the players were practicing running the bases as if scoring from first base.\u00a0 The following video shows the players as they each cross the plate, and then cheer on a grinning D\u2019Angelo as he makes it all the way around.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

When Big Papi and the rest of the hitters in his batting group got settled on Field 5 for some live B.P., D\u2019Angelo sat nearby to watch.\u00a0 It\u2019s so cute the way he carries himself \u2013 he walks like his father, talks like his father, and thinks nothing of standing and chatting with fans.\u00a0 Everywhere he went, he was the star of the show.\u00a0 And just like his father, everyone is drawn to him.\u00a0 The fans all flock to him, and the other players jump right in and include him in whatever they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\"Big

Big Papi and Little Papi take a break during batting practice.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was standing at Field 5 near the small dugout late in the morning, when I started wondering if maybe I should head back up to the front of the complex in case any of the minor leaguers were coming off the field and might be signing.\u00a0 Most autographs that I get come from being in the right place at the right time, and I didn\u2019t want to miss out.\u00a0 But I decided to stay a little longer and watch the rest of the B.P. session.\u00a0 That\u2019s when a woman with two small girls in Ortiz jerseys called D\u2019Angelo over.\u00a0 She started to talk to him in Spanish, but he said he only speaks a little Spanish.\u00a0 She asked where in the Dominican Republic he was from, and told him her family was from Santo Domingo, the capital.\u00a0 D\u2019Angelo said he lived for a while \u201cin the capital in a big apartment,\u201d and then later they lived in a village, but, after pausing thoughtfully, he said he couldn\u2019t really remember all the places he\u2019s lived.\u00a0 The woman asked if she could take a picture of him with her kids, and then said, \u201cYou should get your Dad to come over here for a picture too.\u201d\u00a0 D\u2019Angelo ran off to tell Papi this, but he was in between rounds of B.P. and I figured there\u2019s no way he\u2019d come over in the middle.\u00a0 But when D\u2019Angelo returned a minute later he said, \u201cMy Dad will come over in a little bit, but it won\u2019t be very long.\u201d\u00a0 When the woman asked if he had told them they were from the Dominican he said no, but then ran back onto the field to deliver the additional tidbit.<\/p>\n

\"D'Angelo

D'Angelo Ortiz reflects while watching his father take B.P.<\/p><\/div>\n

All of a sudden, in between turns in the cage, Big Papi himself strolled over to the end of the dugout with a big grin on his face.\u00a0 \u201cSo,\u201d he asked his son, \u201cWhere are these new friends of yours from the Dominican?\u201d\u00a0 He came over and posed for pictures with the woman and kids, and then signed a couple of balls for the others who were standing in the area.\u00a0 The spot I was standing in was right next to them, and I just happened to have brought a picture of me with the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies, which I take out of its frame every year and bring to Spring Training with the hopes of getting autographs from members of the \u201907 team.\u00a0 I still didn\u2019t think he was going to sign anything other than the balls that the Dominican family had, but he saw my picture, reached for it, and signed.\u00a0 I even got to tell him how the trophy picture had been taken at a food drive he had sponsored<\/a> at a Stop \u2018n Shop in Plainville, MA, to benefit victims of flooding in the Dominican a couple of years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 He probably only signed about a dozen things total, and then returned to take his turn at B.P.\u00a0 Being able to talk to one of my all-time favorite players has made my entire trip to Florida complete, and it\u2019s only my second day!<\/p>\n

\"Bonus

Bonus pic: The top four Red Sox starters look on during drills.<\/p><\/div>\n

By the time I did get back up to the front of the complex, the other players had all come in, so if anyone else had been signing I missed them.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t care \u2013 I had definitely been in the right place at the right time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 24, 2011 – Ft. Myers My second day of Red Sox workouts again began early in the morning.\u00a0 We were in good position to watch as the players took the field, and I successfully called both Bobby Jenks and Lars Anderson over to sign.\u00a0 One thing I was happy to see was that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}