Boston Red Sox: David Ortiz Defined His City
Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz is taking a final bow this summer. How should the charismatic slugger be remembered?
As Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz winds through his retirement tour, there are two schools of thought on how he will be remembered.
The cynical fans will remember his name being leaked in the Mitchell Report, linking him to 103 players who failed a confidential steroid test. They will look at his 620 doubles and 528 home runs as the results of cheating. From a smashed dugout phone in Baltimore to his constant working of home plate umpires on getting balls and strikes called correctly, those fans will be glad his antics will be gone.
If you see Ortiz as a petulant villain, you could not be more wrong.
What Ortiz brought and did for the city of Boston, the New England region and the Red Sox is beyond measure. Picked up after his release from the Minnesota Twins largely as a favor to Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox won three world championships with Big Papi. Ortiz is a huge reason Boston came together as a community after a bombing wrecked the Boston Marathon and kept the Red Sox relevant as the New England Patriots became a glamour franchise in the National Football League.
Whether it was his clutch hitting in the 2004 American League Championship Series keeping the BoSox alive against all odds, or taking the 2013 team under his wing when they trailed 2-1 against the St. Louis Cardinals in the Fall Classic, Ortiz has never been afraid to be the leader. Jason Varitek may have worn the captain’s “C” on his jersey. Dustin Pedroia may watch video and correct players’ flaws. Since 2004, the heart and soul of the Sox is Ortiz, a role he embraced to the fullest.
What started with his on-field heroics spread to a series of corny ads with Mayor Thomas Menino encouraging kids to stay out of trouble and culminated with his speech before the Red Sox’s return to Fenway Park after the bombing:
“This is our (expletive) city.”
Only Ortiz could have got away with dropping an f-bomb at that moment. No one had a better pulse of what the city needed to hear.
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In the pantheon of Boston’s heroes – Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Bill Russell, Bobby Orr, Larry Bird and Tom Brady – Ortiz was the first one to embrace the city has much as they embraced him. He revels in his status like Rob Gronkowski. Along with Pedro Martinez, he remains firmly entrenched in his Dominican roots. What started as a last chance for an underperforming player turned into a love affair rarely seen.
If there is one moment of how Ortiz should be remembered, go back to Game 4 of the 2013 World Series. After Boston lost Game 3 on a Will Middlebrooks obstruction call, they trailed in the middle of the next game when Ortiz called the team together in the dugout. His words, filled with words we cannot repeat, inspired the team. The Red Sox steamrolled from there, clinching their first championship at Fenway since 1918.
Yes, sometimes we see more of a child than the man. What we witnessed here in New England goes well beyond the occasional hiccup. Both Williams and Yaz never embraced the city until after their careers finished. Orr was painfully shy and Boston never gave Russell the love that at his zenith he deserved.
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Although he may come across as an obnoxious older brother, no player and city are better matched than Ortiz and Boston. More than the numbers that is how he should be remembered.