Tight series is assured

Hunter and Ortiz the best of friends

Torii Hunter (with the Angels' rally monkey) feels the ALDS could hinge on which team utilizes its running game best. (Matt Sayles/Associated Press)

ANAHEIM, Calif. - David Ortiz's house has a unique feature.

When asked about it, Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter knew immediately what the reporter was talking about.

"Yeah, the barber chair in the garage!" Hunter laughed. "I said 'Man, what is this?' Why do you have a barber chair in the garage, man?"

The barber chair was the $10,000 Christmas gift of LMontro, barber to the athletes who grew up near Manny Ramírez in New York. The chair has diamonds spelling out "Papi." Hunter has spent a lot of time at Ortiz's home in Boston over the years after the former Twins teammates parted when Ortiz signed with Boston as a free agent before the 2003 season.

"I'm looking forward to seeing David," Hunter said. "We went to the playoffs together in 2002. And we played the Angels. Now I get to play [against] one of my old teammates and roommates and one of my best friends in the game.

"We text each other all season, pushing each other. When I'm there, I stay at his house in Boston, I don't even stay at the hotel with the team, and eat his food for free. He's one of my best friends but he knows when we step on the field, we're enemies, and then off the field we're cool again. He can stay at my house this time, but once we step on the field, don't talk to me."

Time and distance have not pulled them apart.

They met during an instructional league with the Twins in 1996, coming from two very different worlds. Ortiz, then David Arias, was from the Dominican Republic and barely spoke English. Hunter had grown up in a tough section of Pine Bluffs, Ark. His father was a Vietnam veteran and crack addict, and Hunter's early life was pretty hard.

"First of all," said Hunter, "[David] was so funny. We first started talking because he was having all kinds of problems with his feet. He was wearing a size-9 shoe and he really wore 11 1/2. He was always going to the training room getting his feet worked on. He missed some games because his toes were all jacked up. I said, 'What are you doing? What's going on?' He said, 'My feet are killing me.' I just happened to walk by his locker and I'm looking at his shoes and I'm thinking he's 6-2, 6-3 and I'm looking at his size 9s and I'm thinking, this don't match. And so he put on size 11 1/2 and he felt much better.

"That's how we really started to get into each other. We started laughing about stuff and from then on it's been a big joke. One after another. In spring training we were in Fort Myers together and I'd sneak into his locker and put peanut butter in his shorts. Or I'd put a firecracker in his shoe and when he moved it, it pops."

Hunter signed a five-year, $90 million deal with the Angels last offseason, leaving his beloved Minnesota, where in his own words, "I became a man. I grew up." As a young player in spring training he played alongside Hall of Famers Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield and he learned how to be a ballplayer, how to act, and how to respect people.

"I won't do anything to him [Ortiz] this time," said Hunter when asked if he's concocted a new prank. "It's the playoffs so I don't want to mess up his concentration. You know what's funny about us? Even back then, I always understood everything he said. He taught me a lot about the Dominican and I taught him a lot about America.

"I'll tell you, as I go on this game, I've never met a greater human being, a guy with a heart of gold, who would do anything for the people he cares about. Yeah, he's the enemy on the field, but afterward he's my friend for life."

Hunter fit right in with an Angels clubhouse filled with mainstays such as Garret Anderson and Vladimir Guerrero. Even Gary Matthews Jr., who lost his starting job to Hunter and lockers next to him, raves about his new teammate: "His ability in the outfield and as a hitter and what he's done in this clubhouse has been amazing."

Hunter excels at bringing people together and teaching young players how to act.

"Every day we had a skull session," recalled Hunter about his time with Puckett and Winfield. "They made me follow them around the field. After spring training games I had to go out with them on the field and they'd talk and I'd listen. They took me under their wing and helped me out a lot. Since then I do that to young guys a lot. I talk to them, I mess with them. I mess with Brandon Wood [his locker neighbor] all the time. You never forget stuff like that.

"Kirby gave me financial advice, advice about life. He grew up just about the same way I grew up, so anything with family issues or financial issues, we'd talk about and he'd lead me on the right path. So I give guys the same kind of a advice almost like a counselor. I don't say you'd better do this or you'd better do that - whatever works for them."

Hunter has been a Red Sox killer in his career, batting .327 against the Sox and .344 at Fenway.

"Accidental," he said. "I just go play the game. I have no idea what that's all about. I respect all of the pitchers over there. I like Boston. I like hitting in Boston. I wouldn't say I like their pitchers. I wouldn't want to face them every day, you know? I've faced those guys in spring training a lot so I've had a chance to watch them and what they're doing. We played them like seven times, so I'm familiar with them."

He also points out that "over my career I hit well [at Angel Stadium], too. When I was a free agent I was a scout, too, so I went over each place and the ballpark and how did I do there, etc. All of that was a check for the Angels . . . But playing in this stadium, the ball does not fly. So I've changed my approach a little bit, basically don't swing as hard."

Hunter sees this American League Division Series as an even matchup, but he feels the team that utilizes its running game best could be a deciding factor.

"We know we have to watch Jacoby [Ellsbury] and Dustin Pedroia and Coco [Crisp]," Hunter said. "We have a few guys like that here. I can run when I need to. In the playoffs I'll run a little more. I think we're evenly matched.

"Of course, they have two world championships. They've been together for a while. They've won together. You have to beat those guys, you just can't come in here fooling around. Whatever happened between these two teams in the past, I wasn't here."

Hunter's father now lives with him in Dallas, and he uses his father's story and life as motivation.

"My dad is doing good," Hunter said. "He's made some terrible mistakes and we all made mistakes and my dad was addicted to drugs. So now he's doing a lot better. He's got to fight drugs every day. He's going to be fighting it for the rest of his life. Watching what my dad has gone through taught me something about his addiction and what it cost him in his life.

"He wishes he could have gone back and spent more time with his kids and watched us grow up and watched our games. So it taught me with my own son, that I'm going to be there for him as much as I can. Even now on offdays I fly back home to Texas so I can watch him play. I want him to be able to see me at his games and look up and there I am. I want him to remember that. My dad was never at my games and I never saw his face or associated him with my baseball games. That hurt. So even if I have to hop on a plane and fly back and forth like that, it's worth it."

Baseball, after all, is not "real life." So there are things that mean more to Hunter. Like his dad's struggle to remain clean, like his children's view of him, like the friendships he's made and nurtured, even if it is with his opponent this series.

"He's a quality guy," said Hunter of Ortiz. "Boston has a guy who's good in the clubhouse, great in the community, great on the field. It's going to be fun playing against him. I'm sure this will give us more things to talk about over the years."

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.