If all you knew was a lot of what's been said, you would think there are all kinds of hard feelings between David Ortiz and the Minnesota Twins. After all, the Twins released Ortiz amid an assortment of doubts about his future, and over the years Ortiz has been critical from time to time about things that were expected of him when he played in Minnesota.

But this is a different story. It's the one about being a young ballplayer and breaking into the majors with the Twins and some of the things that happened before and after.

Ortiz, who is retiring after this season, published a long essay on The Players Tribune website Thursday titled "Thanks for the memories, Minnesota."

"We were kids having fun," Ortiz wrote. "I just saw Eddie Guardado the other day, and we were reminiscing about how much fun we used to have in Minnesota. Those are my boys."

HOWARD SINKER