After a tremendously successful season as Boston's designated hitter last year, slugger David Ortiz is looking for more playing time at first base.

08:45 AM EST on Tuesday, February 24, 2004

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- David Ortiz, frustrated about a lack of playing time, was walking around the Boston Red Sox' clubhouse one day in late May of last year.

To that point, the hulking left-handed hitter had been limited to 99 at-bats over Boston's first 54 games. He was batting .273 with a mere two home runs. His main role seemed to be as the spokesman for his friend Manny Ramirez, who refused to speak to the media.

But the Sox had just shipped Shea Hillenbrand to Arizona the previous day. The deal seemed to open up more playing time and at-bats for Ortiz.

"I hope so, man," Ortiz said that day. "I just want to get out there and show them what I can do."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Ortiz's production soared with his increased playing time. Batting fifth in a record-setting lineup behind Ramirez, Ortiz authored some of the most dramatic hits of the season, catapulting him into the Most Valuable Player race.

He wound up finishing fifth in the voting, thanks to his breakout season that produced 31 homers, 101 RBI and a .288 average.

Now he returns to the Red Sox

for his second season. Ortiz didn't get the multi-year deal he was seeking, but he does have a one-year contract worth roughly $4.6 million in his back pocket.

And he faces a major question. It was a career season he enjoyed in 2003. Can he do it again?

"Everybody has something to prove every year, even the bat boy," said Ortiz, flashing one of his patented wide smiles.

"Everybody has responsibility in this game," he added. "But that's for every man, not just one player. That's for all 25 men on the roster."

Ortiz was responsible for many memorable hits in a magical year for the Red Sox' offense, even if the team did fall five outs short of its first trip to the World Series since 1986.

And he did a lot of damage against the archrival Yankees.

Ortiz, who batted .327 in 15 games against the Yanks, banged out a key two-run, seventh-inning double off New York's Jose Contreras, sparking a five-run surge on May 20.

He bashed a pair of homers in back-to-back games at Yankee Stadium on July 4-5, becoming the the first player in the storied history of the ballpark to accomplish that feat. Ortiz did more damage to the Yanks with a game-ending pinch-hit RBI double off Armando Benitez on July 26, and the next night his two-run triple off Jesse Orosco paved the way to another Red Sox win over New York.

Ortiz's game-winning leadoff homer in the bottom of the 10th at home against Baltimore on Sept. 23 was huge at the time.

He wound up third in the league in slugging percentage (.592), behind only Alex Rodriguez (.600) and Carlos Delgado (.592), second in RBI ratio (1 every 4.4 at-bats) and fifth in home-run ratio (1 every 14.5 at-bats).

Ortiz wasn't quite as productive in the playoffs, but he did have one shining moment. His two-out, two-run double off Oakland closer Keith Foulke (now a member of the Sox) in the eighth inning overcame a 4-3 deficit and gave Boston a dramatic 5-4 triumph in Game 4 of the first-round playoff series.

Not bad for a guy who had never hit more than 20 homers or driven in more than 75 runs in three previous big-league seasons.

"I learned a lot of things last year," said Ortiz, 28, a 6-foot-4, 230-pounder. "I got to learn from Manny a lot. He didn't talk too much, but I saw how he works. When you have a lot of great players, you can learn a lot by watching. I'd watch Manny and Nomar [Garciaparra] and Pedro [Martinez] and Derek Lowe and Johnny [Damon]. I tried to pick a little up from all of them. When you play with guys of that caliber, if you're smart, you can pull some good things out of it."

One key to Ortiz's success was his good fortune to stay away from injuries. Various problems had limited him in his last two years in Minnesota, prompting the Twins to let him go after the 2002 season.

It was the Hillenbrand trade, though, that gave Ortiz his window of opportunity. And he jumped through it.

After the deal, Ortiz clubbed 29 homers and 82 RBI in 97 games. He became an extra-base-hit machine, with 28 doubles and two triples beginning on May 30. Overall, of his 129 hits, 72 were for extra bases (a whopping 56 percent), including a streak of 12 straight extra-base hits from July 27 to Aug. 7.

Most of his playing time came as a designated hitter. Ortiz, though, would like to prove to Terry Francona that he can play first base, too, maybe giving the new Red Sox manager an alternative at the position to Kevin Millar, who also could play in the outfield or DH.

"I'm just 28 years old," said Ortiz, who worked out yesterday at the minor-league complex, two days before the first official full-squad workout.

"I don't want to be a full-time DH. I want to have some fun in the field. If you're just a DH, it's frustrating sometimes. If you go into a slump and you don't get a hit, that's rough. But if you can go in the field and make a good play, even if you're 0-for-4 you feel you've done something," he said.

Francona has vowed to keep an open mind on that score.

"It would be inappropriate of me to say what David might do or what Millar might do. I haven't seen these guys," said Francona, who, as Oakland's bench coach, had a close look at Ortiz' Game 4 heroics in the ALDS.

"(Ortiz) did a pretty good job as a DH. If he can play first sometimes, it can't hurt us," said Francona.

Ortiz, meanwhile, says he's not hurt that he wasn't offered a long-term deal. He is one of six key players who could become a free agent after the season.

"It's great to love the game, but it's not great to be in love with the team you play for because things happen that are out of your control," said Ortiz. "But Boston is a great place to be."

It was a great place for Ortiz in 2003. And the Sox are hoping for more great things from him in 2004.