David Ortiz traded shuttlecocks for baseballs and rackets for a bat. The Boston Red Sox's designated hitter was back in his baseball element Tuesday, a day after taping a badminton-themed vitamin water commercial with Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher at Estero Community Park. How did he feel? "Sore," Ortiz said at City of Palms Park before the Red Sox played the Minnesota Twins. Ortiz said the taping took five hours. That may explain why his shoulder was sore. That's a lot of hitting of shuttlecocks. He also got to spend time with Urlacher, perhaps as fine a hitter of running backs as Ortiz is of baseballs. "He's a very cool guy," Ortiz said. Urlacher and Ortiz ended up teaming together against two Olympic badminton players. That gave Ortiz an appreciation for high-level badminton. "The thing is, when they hit it to you, it comes like 150 miles an hour," Ortiz said. "For real. I mean, they were saying, 'OK, here it comes.' " That didn't mean that Ortiz, a novice badminton player, could do much with shuttlecocks screaming over the net at such seemingly supersonic speed. Ortiz was right back at home in the batter's box Tuesday. He walked, hit a sacrifice fly and ripped a two-run single off the right-field wall. He was also thrown out at third trying to go from first to third on a Manny Ramirez single to left. Although Ortiz grew up in the Dominican Republic, he has become a football fan. He played minor-league ball in Wisconsin in 1996 and became a Green Bay Packers fan. "I used to be," Ortiz said. "Now I'm a Patriots guy." But not a badminton guy. The News-Press ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, they should give a bit more respect to badminton players!!!!!
Nice article.. ..nice article(rest of article snipped for brevity)...Since he is a left-handed batter & swings with his right arm/hand hammering those baseballs, i would assume he has quite a lot of power on his right arm, forearm, wrist and hand..Just teach him some basic/fundamental badminton techniques and who knows..
woopss missed that http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/SPORTS02/703210432/1012
Guess what guys.. ...what do i know, but last night on Channel 7, while channel surfing, for the 1st time i saw that Vitamin Water commercial featuring David Ortiz, Brian Urlacher(Bears linebacker) and featuring the U.S.A. World Champ Howard Bach with his MD partner, Bob Malaythong. Not sure if anyone else saw it, but the ending is pretty funny. I am trying to find the video clip of it, have scoured the internet, but no luck so far(i guess it's still new). But will post the link once i find it.
