"Lil' Papi" is the name.
Yes, Kyle Snyder paid homage to his former teammate David Ortiz by throwing the moniker on his 2001 Hell's Bay Whipray fishing boat. But it's the story of how that happened which is part of the bond that still lives with the 2007 world champion Red Sox.
"With that group from '07 it always gets raised," Snyder told WEEI.com. "It's almost taken on a life of its own."
It goes something like this ...
A group of about 11 players from that 2007 Red Sox would continuously hold a card game in the back of the plane on road trips, with Ortiz known for his propensity to overpower many of the participants with sheer spending power.
There were very good players among the group, including the man who stands alongside Snyder (who serves as the Rays' pitching coach) each game these days, Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash. But Ortiz' spending power was often tough to overcome.
But one day, Snyder couldn't be denied.
When it was all said and done, the then-Red Sox pitcher had taken down Ortiz and walked off the plane with a lot of cash. How much? Well, enough to go and buy the boat he had had dreamed of owning since watching fishing legend Flip Pallot on the ESPN show "Walker's Cay Chronicles".
"I went out and found the boat I wanted with the amount of money. We talked about it all the time," Snyder remembered. "There were a lot of good card players, but there are a lot of hands too. If people buy-in, you're turning around a decent amount of cash
.
"Everyone makes me out to be this great card player. I just played my hand right one or two times in the back of the plane and bought a boat."
But what truly makes the story was what Snyder did after securing the boat. For that '07 team, the vessel's moniker was everything.
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"It was talked about quite a bit in that '07 season," said Snyder, whose big-league career ended after being designated for assignment by the Red Sox in 2008.
"I had to play the game the way I had to play the game. I went out of there with enough money to buy a little skiff called it 'Lil' Papi'. ... Everyone makes me out to be this great card player. I just played my hand right one or two times in the back of the plane and bought a boat."
