MLB power rankings: Top 30 nicknames of all-time
By John Buhler
11. David Ortiz: Big Papi
He recently hung up the spikes, but baseball hasn’t been the same since David Ortiz retired from the sport. After floundering his first six years in the MLB with the Minnesota Twins, Ortiz would successfully re-invent himself as the jovial designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox.
Ortiz will go down in history as one of the most clutch hitters in baseball. He won three World Series Championships playing for Boston, earning 10 trips to the All-Star Game and seven silver sluggers. Ortiz retired a .286 hitter with 2,472 hits, 541 home runs and 1,768 runs batted in.
His Dominican upbringing and larger than life on-field persona manifested in one of the best nicknames in baseball: Big Papi. Not only would Ortiz rip the cover off the ball, he had no issue spraying the ball opposite field to drive in a run if the Red Sox needed it most.
Ortiz was one of the few players in baseball history that was universally adored. He not only had fun playing the game, but he did so with a one-of-a-kind flare that players normally would not be able to get away with. Ortiz did because he was Big Papi and that’s all you needed to know.