APTER Growing Up Papi avid Américo Ortiz Arias was born on November 18 1975 in the city of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic Ortiz s parents Enrique Ortiz and Angela Rosa Arias had two children David and his sister Albania Ortiz s father was a baseball player a pitcher growing up When Enrique and Angela got married and had David Enrique stopped playing baseball and sold auto parts to take care of his family Enrique taught David a lot about baseball and Ortiz said his father helped him throughout his career in the major leagues Angela Rosa Arias worked as a secretary in the Dominican Republic s Department of Agriculture She also traveled all over the Caribbean selling clothes and trying to make extra money for the family When Ortiz was fourteen or fifteen years old he and his family left Santo Domingo and moved to a town called Haina Going QUICK FACTC from a city of nearly three million to the much smaller Haina was a big change The Dominican Republic shares for the family The house was very small and the streets were not paved There the island of Hispaniola with the country of Haiti with not much to do Ortiz was constantly playing baseball STRIKE OL
Growing Up Papi IIII These children are playing baseball in the Dominican Republic Cubans first brought baseball to the Dominican Republic in the 1880s and early 1890s Learning the Game Baseball is the national sport of the Dominican Republic Many great baseball players have grown up in the Dominican Republic and had long major league careers Ortiz learned how to play baseball on the streets of Santo Domingo which meant he was not playing with the equipment many baseball players are used to Ortiz said he never played baseball with a glove when he was growing up His friends often did not have baseballs or bats either He said he usually played with a broomstick as a bat and a bottle cap as a ball Sometimes he would steal a sock from his father and wrap it in a plastic bag He would even break the heads off his sister s dolls and use them as
DAVID ORTIZ WORLD SERIES CHAMPION Third baseman Adrian Beltre is another major League Baseball MLB player who grew up in the Dominican Republic He and Ortiz played together on the Red Sox in 2010 Hiting a botle cap with a broomstick is no easy task but Ortiz thinks it helped him become a better hitter I have to believe it helped me develop my hand eye coordination Ortiz wrote in his 2007 autobiography Big Papi've always been able to hit a curveball and I think one of the big reasons is because I learned how to hit a bottle cap with a broomstick when I was growing up When Ortiz was a teenager his N parents split up David and Albania lived QUICK FACT with their mother while his father remar ried and had another child David's The Dominican Republic has a half sister Yacili Despite not living with population of just over ten million his father David continued to receive help and is home to many major league from him and grew as a baseball player stars including Jose Reyes Manny His father drove up to watch David play Ramirez Robinson Cano and and helped him draw the interest of major Adrian Beltre league teams KN
Growing Up Papi MLB scouts rely on the knowledge of buscones and local scouts to get information about potential major leaguers in the Dominican Republic The Buscones David played baseball and basketball for Estudia Espallat High School While playing there he got the attention of buscones or street agents who help major league clubs scout players in the Dominican Republic These buscones help players work out and get tryouts with teams Sometimes they are former players themselves or they have friends in the United States who work for major league teams Buscones give players equipment and whatever they need to play baseball then get paid if a player signs a major league contract Buscones have their players work out together in a group they call the Proaram Ortiz started working with a buscón when he was a teenager working out at a field near his mother house in Haina In the Dominican Republic you cannot sign with a club until you are sixteen years old A scout named Edmundo Borreme who worked for the Florida Marlins had Ortiz work out with him and a few other players
