Big Papi connects

It must be his diet, said José Arias, 12, a catcher from Jamaica Plain.

``Plátanos, because he's Dominican."

Timothy Larkin, 8, offered another explanation: practice swings off a tee.

``I do that all the time," said the slugger from Stratham, N.H.

Or maybe it's concentration.

``He blocks all the noise out," said Tyrone Thornton, 10, a second baseman from Mattapan. ``And then it's just like batting practice."

Everyone in the city wants to know: How does David Ortiz conjure such magical performances night after night? How does he step to the plate, and with one satisfying thwack, deliver big hit after big hit, many of the walk-off variety, giving victory and euphoria to Red Sox Nation?

Yesterday, Big Papi revealed at least part of the secret.

José Arias was not far off.

``You got to make sure you've had a good meal before you come to the field," Ortiz said, flashing a giant smile at a Fenway Park baseball clinic for children from the region. ``Rice, chicken, and beans -- straight up."

But perhaps a bigger part of the secret became apparent as Ortiz burst out of the Red Sox dugout and onto the sizzling field, pulling children in for bear hugs, lifting them , and giving them pointers on throwing and catching. It was clear that, despite the sometimes punishing glare of Boston baseball celebrity, Ortiz, 30, has found a way to stay free, playful, and unburdened by expectation.

It was eight hours before game time, and Ortiz -- dressed in tattered jeans, white sneakers, sunglasses, and a red golf shirt -- seemed as comfortable as if he were in his own living room. He grinned constantly, laughed easily, and took delight in razzing his young acolytes.

``Uh oh! Can you catch the ball?" he asked, crouching to hide behind one boy, who was practicing his glove-work with a friend. ``My whole life is in your hands!"

The boy kept his focus on the ball, caught it, and hurled it back to his friend.

``Good job!" Ortiz said warmly. ``Very nice!"

``I was a kid before -- I don't know if you guys know that," Ortiz told the children in a brief speech he delivered from atop the dugout. ``I'm still a kid sometimes."

The clinic was sponsored by Bank of America, which invited about 100 children from local Little Leagues, schools, and neighborhood groups. The goal was to teach them the value of hard work.

It came as Ortiz has reached near-mythic status among Red Sox fans. He has hit 37 home runs and knocked in 105 runs, the most in the American League. In the past week alone, he has lifted the team to two come-from-behind victories in dramatic fashion. He has almost made the game-winning hit commonplace.

Even the powerful marvel at his calm under pressure.

``Every time you come up, we expect you're going to save us again," said Robert E. Gallery, president of Bank of America Massachusetts, introducing Ortiz to the youngsters. ``It must be a remarkable burden for you to have."

Of course, there's something ultimately unexplainable about how any player rises to the top of a sport. ``I just try to get better every day, man," Ortiz said with a shrug.

He also said he prefers not to know too much about the pitchers he faces.

``When I get to be searching, to get to know too much about somebody that I have never faced, that's what gets me in trouble," Ortiz said. ``If I just go out there like [Los Angeles Angels slugger] Vladimir Guerrero, just to swing at whatever I see, then I get whatever I want."

His youngest fans seemed almost frozen in awe .

When Ortiz spotted David Pizzaro, 14, a student from the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Allston, standing shyly to the side, Ortiz reached out a hand and delivered a giant pat on the back.

``What's up, big dog?" Ortiz asked. ``How you doing, man?"

Pizzaro looked stunned, but after Ortiz walked away, the boy repeated the embrace with his friends, mimicking Ortiz's big, warm reach.

Others couldn't contain themselves.

``You're my idol!" shouted Andrew Talbot, a bespectacled 9-year-old catcher from Braintree, when he glimpsed Ortiz on the field. Ortiz smiled and waved.

``Ortiz really right now is the attraction, and every kid wants his autograph," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, a former catcher who was on the field yesterday, in shirt and tie. ``Every kid wants to have a picture taken with him. They all want to be in his presence."

At a Boys and Girls Club fund-raiser in Boston last Saturday, ``people lined outside just hoping to see him, not even touch him or get an autograph, but just to see him," Menino said.

``Where do you sit?" Ortiz asked Menino, who pointed to a seat deep in the stands. ``That way I can hit the ball there," Ortiz said. And then he laughed.

Ortiz is in his 10th year in the Major Leagues. The Red Sox have 55 games left in the regular season. No one knows what heroics Big Papi will pull off next.

``I would like to know the future," Ortiz told the children .

``I would like somebody to come to me and tell me, `Hey, Big Papi, you're going to hit 70 homers next year.' I'd be like, `Woo hoo! Right on!' "

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.