You may or may not know this about me, but I am a huge Boston Red Sox fan and a big fan of Big Papi (aka David Ortiz). In fact, if you are a fan of Latino USA, you would know by now that people call me The Bronx Judas for shedding my New York Yankee allegiances for the Sox. Much of that had to do with Papi, who is retiring at the end of this year (hopefully after the Red Sox win the World Series) and could essentially run for mayor of Boston once he hangs up his bat at Fenway Park.
Which is why I am utterly confused as to how anyone who lives in the Boston area wouldn’t be able to recognize Ortiz in real life. I mean, this is Big Papi we’re talking about. He owns this city right now (Sorry, Tom Brady). But I guess even in Boston (yes, the best sports city in the United States), an infinitely small number of people have no clue, because in a new video Ortiz released Wednesday morning on his Facebook page for Lyft, no one (and I mean, no one) recognized Papi.
The horror.
It’s not like Ortiz gave them bad clues: “The Papi guy? You should like him. He’s real good.”
Or when he spits into his hands.
Or what about this one: “Actually all of my shirts are his shirts.” Hello?
And what about his voice? I could close my eyes, hear Papi’s voice and instantly know it is him.
I will say this: after watching the video several times (more than 10), it is hard to pinpoint where exactly “Donny” the Lyft driver was picking up his passengers, but from the looks of it, “Donny” could have been riding around the outskirts of Boston’s neighborhoods or the immediate Boston suburbs. (It sure looked like Newton, which is not Boston.)
I just find it hard to believe that none of the people included in the final video had no idea. How Bostonian are you when you can’t even recognize David Ortiz? Your Boston badge is revoked if you can’t do that. I mean, if it were me, I would have jumped for joy and paid Lyft to have Papi take me all over town and stop by Merengue Restaurant for lunch. Then I would have taken over the wheel and driven him to Fenway.
Nonetheless, as sad as I am getting, knowing that next year Ortiz won’t be in a Boston uniform, I think he found a calling in viral video comedy.
Let’s hope so, because life without Big Papi around would be awful.