As most of you have probably heard by now, David Ortiz hit his 500th career home run on Saturday night.

This was possible because he hit bomb #499 in the first inning, putting the career milestone one swing away. I’m so happy Don Orsillo was the one to call it, and he absolutely nailed the call, as usual.

Papi has come a long way since he was a skinny kid named David Arias fighting for at-bats on the Twins.

After his age 26 season he had only 58 home runs in 455 games in parts of six seasons with Minnesota, never amassing more than 415 at-bats in a year. The Twins stupidly let him walk, and the Red Sox smartly signed him before the start of the 2003 season. The rest, as they say, is history, but Ortiz wasn’t an instant success in Boston. He hit .212 with one homer in April, and through May he had brought is average up to .272, but still had hit only 2 dingers and was still only playing about every other game.

After June 1 David Ortiz became Big Papi, hitting .293 with 29 bombs and 82 RBIs for the rest of the regular season.

And we all know in 2004 Big Papi became a Boston icon, and he’d live up to his reputation as the most clutch player of his era over and over again.

Now, about my tardiness. David Ortiz’s 500th home run is probably the most noteworthy occurrence of the 2015 season and the reliable Righty didn’t blog it for 24 hours after it happened.

Let me explain: I was in New York for a really good friend’s wedding and was planning on doing my write up from the classy motel I was staying in after the reception (I’m dedicated).

I was following the game on my phone during the reception, at the dinner table, and on the dance floor, and when Ortiz hit the first one I was hoping he wouldn’t hit another so I wouldn’t miss it. No such luck. When I saw he had hit another I aborted my Travolta Twist (mid-twist), turned to my friend Jacky and said “Jack Ortiz just hit #500! I can’t believe I missed it.” To which she responded “Oh wow [eye roll] I bet it looked like the other 500 he’s hit.” Jacky is a jerk. And her math skills are suspect.

After we got back to the motel I fired up my iPad ready to write something awesome about Ortiz’s Ruthian accomplishment, but the “Free High-Speed WiFi” sign by the front desk turned out to be a textbook example of false advertising. Not only could I not get on, but my iPad didn’t even detect a wireless network. At this point it was about 1:15 AM so I couldn’t just waltz into the lobby and ask for help. So here we are.

Oh yeah the game. The Sox won 10-4 thanks to five big flies and a rock solid outing by Freddie Porcello. Boom, recapped.

Notes:

-Pedro celebrated Papi’s feat in style, and is still the best.

Eeeeeeeeehhhh compadre a su salud!! @davidortiz pic.twitter.com/GGq60RzK4e

— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) September 13, 2015