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
DAVID ORTIZ WORLD SERIES CHAMPION Prospects working with the same buscón often practice and play together while major league teams scout them 10 L
Growing Up Papi QUICK FACT In 1992 the Florida Marlins were an expansion team They had not even played a game yet when they were scouting Ortiz for four or five months before Ortiz hurt his elbow Ortiz was sent home to rest his elbow but a few months later another buscón named Hector Alvarez asked him to come play with his Program in Santo Domingo Alvarez got in touch with a scout for the Seattle Mariners named Ramón de los Santos Santos liked what he saw from Ortiz and had him come take batting practice in the Dominican Summer League On November 28 1992 about two weeks after Ortiz turned seventeen he signed a professional contract with the Seattle Mariners Ortiz got a 7 500 signing bonus from the Mariners He was officially a professional baseball
