11 year old Yankee fan working on a dream

[Rhino2K]

The Ultimate Souvenir

By Justin Coons

 

 

Christian Ortiz doesn’t want to be a fireman, a policeman or an astronaut when he grows up.

 

He wants to be a Yankee.

 

Christian, 11, can’t really remember when he first decided he wanted to become a Yankee. He can’t say exactly when he started following the Bronx Bombers.

 

It’s just always been that way.

 

“I can’t really say,” he said, “maybe since I was 5 or 6.”

 

Christian has played Little League since he was 5, and he plays shortstop and third base — just like Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a 12-time All-Star, two-time Golden Glove winner, nine-time Silver Slugger and three-time American League MVP.

 

And he’s No. 1 in Christian’s book.

 

“His home run average is awesome,” Christian said.

 

Polly Ortiz said she recognized her son’s love for baseball and New York early on.

 

“That’s his big dream,” she said. “He wants to play for the Yankees when he gets out of school. As his parent, I will do whatever it takes to help him follow his dream. I want him to follow them.

 

“I know that’s a big dream, but anything is possible.”

 

That was no more apparent than earlier this month, when the Ortiz family visited New York City. They visited with modest expectations — to see the sights and watch a pair of baseball games — but what they experienced went far beyond that.

 

The trip was years in the making.

 

“I had always promised him, ‘I’ll take you to Yankee Stadium one day,’” Polly Ortiz said.

 

However, when the Yankees organization announced it had plans to demolish the iconic stadium at season’s end, the Ortiz family knew it was now or never.

 

“I wanted him to see what the history was behind it,” Polly Ortiz said. “I went ahead and just did everything online myself, planned the trip, got us tickets and got us there.”

 

When they arrived, it was a little overwhelming.

 

“It’s really biiig,” Christian said, wide-eyed.

 

But over the course of their week in the Big Apple, they learned the ropes of city life.

 

“When we were there, we kind of felt like strangers in a big city, but then we got used to it,” Polly Ortiz said. “By the time we came home, we were pros at it. We were pros at the subway and pros at the taxis.

 

“At first it took us 45 minutes to get a taxi — but before you knew it we were like ‘Taxi!’ and they’d stop.”

 

The Ortiz family caught a pair of Yankees games. They saw a Jason Giambi grand slam and a home run from Rodriguez that tied him with Mickey Mantle on the career home runs list.

 

“I was amazed because it was so cool,” Christian said. “I had never been to a game before, and seeing the Yankees was my first game.”

 

But the best part came in the middle of New York’s matchup with the Boston Red Sox.

 

Rodriguez popped a ball up, right at their seats in the middle deck. Christian stood up, held up his glove and let his baseball instincts take over.

 

“They tried to get under it, and I just had my glove in the air,” Christian said. “I put my glove in the air and a lot of people jumped under it. When they jumped for it, I jumped a little bit and caught it. I had it in my glove, and a little boy tried to take it from me, and my mom said ‘That was his ball.’ He dropped it back in my glove and ran off.”

 

Christian was awestruck.

 

“It was amazing,” he said. “I was thinking ‘How did I catch this?’”

 

His second thought turned to the little boy and the ball.

 

“Right when I caught it, I just wanted to get out of there,” Christian said, laughing. “I didn’t want anybody to take it.”

 

At his first-ever Major League ballgame, Christian caught a ball from his favorite player. And it just gets better from there.

 

He took a guided tour of Yankee Stadium before a game. The tour went all around the stadium, snaking through the stands, through the bullpens, the dugouts and onto the field.

 

Spectators on the tour were told to stay off the grass and on the warning track.

 

“At that point, Christian asked if he could touch the grass,” Polly Ortiz said. “The tour guide said ‘Just do it behind me; if I watch you, that’s a crime.’ They consider it vandalism if you touch it. The guy said ‘Go ahead, do it behind me.’”

 

The tour guide may have turned a blind eye to some serious criminal activity, but he also made a young man’s day.

 

“Christian waited until the guide got ahead and he touched it,” Polly Ortiz said. “And he just lighted up.”

 

There were many more highlights of the Ortiz family’s trip the Big Apple, and Christian said they all made him more sure that he wants to wear the blue and white pinstripes one day.

 

They visited the Mickey Mantle’s NYC, a restaurant where they browsed the Yankee memorabilia of yesteryear — an interesting experience in itself, considering that Ortiz was born in 1997.

 

It didn’t end there.

 

“We got to go into Monument Park and read the monuments,” Christian said.

 

It was enough to have the Ortizes already planning for their next adventure to New York. They plan on going back for a game at the inaugural season of New Yankee Stadium.

 

“It was awesome,” Polly Ortiz said. “We had a great time.”

[DaveTV1]

Lucky Kid, I had the same dream back in 1976 when I was 7. I didn't make it to Yankee Stadium, until I was 32.

 

In my honest opinion, I'd rather this kid was playing 3rd, instead of Alex Rodriguez and his bastion of distractions to the team I love.

 

As for the breaking the rules by the tour guide, those are the kind of rules that I think need to be broken. This kid got to touch the field that so many great players have tread. :thumbsup:

 

Even as old as I am, this experience would be a dream come true for me.I wish this kid well, in his pursuit of his dream.

[BIG-DADDY]

:thumbsup: Good luck to the Kid!

[WARRIOR]

Best of Luck to the kid! I will be looking for his name in about ten years!

[Guest CheckItAtTheDoor]

I would like to see the video of the mother berating the other kid

to give her son the ball.