David Ortiz Pens Revealing, Personal Final Farewell

"I'd give you all a big [expletive] hug if I could."

That's how David Ortiz ended his final farewell to fans in a personal, revealing letter on The Players' Tribune.

In the letter published Monday, Ortiz talks about resisting the itch to get play again, his behind-the-scenes relationships with Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez, and the moments he'll always remember.

Ortiz has used The Players' Tribune to reach out to fans before, including this humorous goodbye to the Yankees.

Some highlights of Monday's letter:

• On his famed 2013 speech: "I took the microphone and said what I felt. What I said that day, I said as a citizen. Not as a baseball player. Not as a Red Sox player. I said it as a Bostonian who was hurting inside."
• Ortiz thinks he owes his career to playing hooky during a game with Pedro Martinez to eat some chicken wings. "Listen, you only know the nickname “Big Papi” right now because Pedro Martinez cared about me. If he didn’t care about me as a human being, maybe I never get a chance."
• Manny Ramirez wasn't lazy, but rather the hardest worker Ortiz had seen: "Manny wanted people to believe that he was lazy, that he didn’t really care. That’s how he spotted your weakness."

Click here to read the full letter

Photo by Keith Allison via Flickr