BRADENTON, Fla. -- There’s this notion that David Ortiz doesn’t need spring training, fueled by his spectacular start in 2013, when he did not play in a game in Florida, started the season on the disabled list with a sore Achilles, then hit .500 (18-for-36) with 3 home runs and 15 RBIs in his first nine games after being activated.

Just another urban legend, Ortiz revealed Thursday after he hit a home run off the batter’s eye in center field here for his first home run of the spring.

“I wish I could [skip spring training], but it’s not true, because it doesn’t matter how good you are, how easy it is for you to get to the point you’re ready to go, you always need spring training,’’ he said. “That’s how you get there.’’

Ortiz may not have appeared in any exhibitions in 2013, he said, but that should not be mistaken for an idle spring.

“That’s what you think,’’ he said. “I didn't have this one [with games], but I had my own. I think that was the year I worked the most.

“I prefer this to that,’’ he said, laughing heartily.

Ortiz, who had injured the Achilles in 2012 and missed most of the season’s second half, was still rehabbing the injury in camp the following spring. Under the direction of Dan Dyrek, the Red Sox coordinator of sports medicine, Ortiz was put through a rigorous exercise program that kept him on the back fields while his teammates were playing.

But he was still taking regular batting practice in the batting cages. “All the time,’’ he said. “Even more than I normally do.

“They got me ready. They wanted my core to stay ready for the speed of the game, swinging the bat. I was doing exercises for that every day.

“I wasn't just running. I was doing a lot of the same things I normally do. I was ready to go. The minute they gave me the green light to start running, I was good to go, I worked extremely hard that year.’’

Ortiz noted how outfielder Rusney Castillo, who hasn’t played in a game in nine days after straining his left oblique muscle against Boston College, is going through a similar routine that he did.

“The trainers here, you see what happens when someone gets hurt, how hard they work? Look at Castillo now. He’d love to get ready faster because they wear you out. They make sure your body doesn't walk away from the shape you need for baseball.’’

Ortiz, 39, begins the season with 466 career home runs, 34 short of 500. Should Thursday’s blast count toward that total?

“You should (count it),’’ he said. “Make it easier on the old man.’’