Even now, after all these years, David Ortiz has so much reverence for the greatest hitter in Red Sox history that he refuses to refer to Ted Williams without attaching the prefix "Mr."

And so, after belting his 521st career home run Friday night and tying the Splendid Splinter for 19th on the all-time list, Big Papi made sure to retrieve the ball.

"It's a good ball to keep, trust me," Ortiz said after the Red Sox lost 8-4 to the Mariners at Fenway Park. "The gentleman who caught it, he was very generous. He wanted me to autograph a bat for him, and I did."