FORT MYERS, Fla. -- After 19 years and a few hundred players, the memory tends to fade, one first impression bleeding into the next. Terry Ryan can be excused, then, for being unable to recall exactly when he saw David Ortiz walk into a big-league spring-training camp for the first time in 1997.
But Ryan certainly remembers noticing.
"David was a good-looking young hitter," said the Minnesota Twins general manager, who had acquired Ortiz the previous August in a trade that sent third baseman Dave Hollins to the Seattle Mariners. "His first camp was a long time ago, so I don't remember anything specifically except that he came to us as a hitter.