"Seventeen-year-old David Arias thought he'd grow up to play with the Seattle Mariners, maybe someday hit in the same lineup with Ken Griffey Jr. The Dominican-born slugger had great power as a teenager and dreamed about crushing tape-measure shots in the Kingdome.

None of that worked out, of course. The Kingdome was replaced by Safeco Field in 1999 and demolished in 2000. Griffey went home to Cincinnati to hit his 600th homer.

And what about young Mr. Arias?

He got traded to the Twins when he was 20, changed his name to David Ortiz, broke into the bigs in 1997, had some good years with Minnesota, got released by the Twins (2002), then came to Boston, where he became Big Papi, the Sox most beloved player, a two-time world champ, and Boston's greatest clutch hitter since Carl Yastrzemski, circa 1967.

The 2011 Red Sox are four games into a two-city trip in which Ortiz faces both of the organizations that gave up on him. Ortiz has collected nine hits, including three homers, in the first four games of the Red Sox' six-game road trip through Minneapolis and Seattle.

Big Papi disputes the notion that he carries extra emotion into games against the Twins and Mariners. This is Revenge Tour Across America for David Americo Arias Ortiz.

"That was all a long time ago,'' he said with a smile before blasting homer No. 24 to center last night in the Red Sox' 6-4 victory. "I'm more intense against the Yankees than anyone else.''

Still, it's hard not to think of what might have been."