Like Big Papi said, this is our (bleeping) series

BOSTON – David Ortiz. That?s all. Just David Ortiz.When he hit the grand slam in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers, radio broadcaster Dave O?Brien just kept shouting his name. “David Ortiz ? David Ortiz ? David Ortiz ?”What else was there to say? What else is there to say?In five games of this 2013 World Series, “Big Papi,” is hitting an otherworldly .733, with two homers. For reasons known only to manager Mike Methany, the St. Louis Cardinals insist on pitching to him. And Ortiz ? who has acquired a new nickname (?Cooperstown”) ? insists on making them pay.One wonders whether Cardinals? pitchers should just point to first base from hereon out and escort Ortiz down there. Forget the formalities. Just put him there. Anyone dumb enough to pitch to him deserves what he gets.Tonight, the Red Sox seek to win their first world championship on Fenway Park soil since 1918. And it?s safe to say they?d be nowhere close to this position without David Ortiz. In fact, it?s safe to say they?d have all been playing golf on Oct. 1 were it not for Ortiz.Here is a man who, at the end of last season, was at a serious crossroad in his illustrious career. He missed the final two months of that disastrous season with an Achilles tendon injury and had to sit for two weeks at the beginning of this one waiting for the injury to heal well enough so he could play.Then, just when he was rounding into shape, the bombs went off during the Boston Marathon, and the Red Sox began the process of helping the city heal. Naturally, it was “Big Papi,” with his unscheduled trip to the microphone the day after the city rejoiced in the capture of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who set the tone.?This is our (bleeping) city,” he yelled into the microphone to a thunderous ovation. Despite the expletive, his rallying cry passed FCC muster, and Ortiz became the face of the team?s season-long effort to help give comfort and hope to a city that sorely needed both.Ortiz never let up and neither did the team. He hit 30 homers, knocked in 103 runs, and played 137 games out of 162. And he certainly made his general manager (Ben Cherington) look like a genius for signing him for two years at $14 million this season and $11 million in 2014 when just about every pundit around screamed that he wasn?t worth half of it.All season, there were three concurrent themes with this team. There was the organization-wide redemption to wash away the stench of a miserable 69-win season in 2012 under Bobby Valentine; there was the genuine effort on the part of the players to be beacons of hope and healing for the city; and there was the personal redemption of David Ortiz, who had been accused by Valentine of packing it in when he hurt his foot in July 2012. You can also throw tonight?s starting pitcher, John Lackey, into that redemption mix too.Should the Red Sox pull this worst to first scenario off with wins either tonight or Thursday, Ortiz will certainly be the unanimous series MVP. He has saved his best for last, and in so doing, he has united all three elements of a memorable and emotional Red Sox campaign, just as he set them all in motion back on April 20.He said the other night he that he was born for this. And in light of everything that has happened in Boston this year, the Red Sox seem destined for this as well.