FORT MYERS, Fla. – He bats from the right side, and wears his hair in a short, dreadlock style, but give him a Red Sox cap and a No. 34 jersey and even Big Papi’s relatives are impressed by the resemblance.

Meet Chris Johnson. If there’s a market for David Ortiz impersonators, Johnson could corner it.

His name may not turn any heads, but his face certainly causes a lot of double-takes, whether he’s on the subway in New York City or back in his old stomping grounds in Massachusetts. The New Jersey native is almost a clone of 6-foot-4, 230-pound Sox slugger David Ortiz.

“Last year, I was at a game and met Ortiz and his brother and his brother told me I looked more like him than he did,” said Johnson, a former two-sport athlete at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

Johnson’s two sports were football and baseball. And yes, he was a first baseman-designated hitter.

“I’ve been getting it pretty much since 2003,” Johnson said. “In 2004, I’d go to the games a lot and people said I looked just like him.”

Johnson, who is 6-3 and weighs 250, is very close in size to Big Papi as well. About the only physical difference is Johnson’s hairstyle, but that’s hidden whenever he’s wearing his favorite hat: a navy blue Red Sox cap.

“I love wearing my Red Sox hat because I love the Sox. It’s sort of my way to twist the knife there a little,” said Johnson, a longtime Andover, Mass., resident who now lives in Queens, N.Y.

Despite moving to the Empire State two years ago, his recognition factor hasn’t gone down.

“During baseball season, it probably happens 10 to 15 times a day,” he said.” I get people who give me the look and then shrug and then I get people who ask me if I’m David Ortiz, and I’m like ‘If I were David Ortiz, would I be riding the subway in New York City?’

“It’s crazy. I left Yankee Stadium in game one of the 2004 ALCS and had about 10 people following me on the way out, yelling at me and stuff and a cop came up and told me it was my fault for wearing the hat.”

The former Boston Globe employee, now working in advertising for The Onion in New York, said the positives of looking like Ortiz far outweigh the negatives.

“People started giving me free stuff like good seats and beer at games. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything,” he said sheepishly. “Over the last couple years, it’s gotten more intense. I get a lot of people wanting to take my picture, even when he’s out on the field at a game I’m at.”

aneff@bangordailynews.net

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