Getty First ballot MLB hall-of-famer David "Big Papi" Ortiz was a championship slugger with the Boston Red Sox, but it's his outsized personality that endures well into retirement
Eight years after retiring, David Ortiz trotted out to the field once again, wearing a red, alternate Boston Red Sox jersey with number 34 on the back, displaying the infectious smile and unwavering enthusiasm that made him a face of Major League Baseball for the better part of a decade.
In this return though, he was wearing jeans, gold-encrusted sunglasses and far more jewelry than any active player would dare. Alongside compatriot and former Red Sox teammate Pedro Martinez, Ortiz threw out the first pitch of the Dominican Republic Series opener, a preseason matchup between his former team and the Tampa Bay Rays.
The exhibition kicked off an ambitious new chapter in Major League Baseball’s efforts to expand its presence around the globe — an effort that won’t just generate new audiences and merchandise sales, but encourage new players who might one day have the kind of impact on and off the field that Ortiz has.
Ortiz is a first-ballot hall of famer, 10-time All-Star and seven-time Silver Slugger who won three World Series championships with the Red Sox between 2004 and 2013. But perhaps even more than that, he endures as one of the game’s biggest and most alluring personalities. He’s been lampooned by “Saturday Night Live,” started a foundation that offers pediatric cardiac care training in New England hospitals and launched a cannabis brand; hit 541 homers and taken a selfie with Barack Obama.
‘I Let Them Know That’s the Key’
GettyOrtiz spoken with Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora ahead of the team’s preseason game in the Dominican Republic
Reflecting on the Dominican Series, Ortiz emphasized how international expansion by the MLB and its players can have a significant individual impact.
“I never, when I was a kid, got to experience that. I don’t think I ever saw a Major League Baseball player when I was a kid,” he told Heavy. “Based on my own experience, when I get to meet a kid and they see me, they would love to play baseball.”
Ortiz also noted the type of financial investment that MLB’s interest in a place like the Dominican Republic can drive, highlighting the renovations that Estadio Quisqueya in his native Santo Domingo has received to enable more high-profile events.
“I think that was remarkable … motivating basically the governor in the Dominican Republic to build a new stadium so we can have more MLB games down here,” he said. “They had to work hard on the stadium we have here, which is a gazillion years old, but with the amount of baseball players that we have coming out of the Dominican — which I think is the number-one country producing baseball players after the U.S. — I think we should have a better facility.”
Motivated in large part by the impact that Dominican players like Ortiz, Martínez, Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero and others have had on baseball, all 30 MLB teams have developed training facilities in the country.
The Red Sox Dominican Academy, for instance, houses about 80 players for much of the year, offering English and GED classes, workout facilities and more. Current Red Sox stars like Rafael Devers and Brayan Bello got their starts there.
When asked how he’d encourage those players to carry on the legacy left by Dominican players on the Red Sox and in MLB at large, Ortiz was quick to share the philosophy that was central to his team’s World Series success in 2004 and is evidently central to his own gregarious outlook on life.
“My biggest message to them is … work as a team, put the ego away,” he said. “Understand the guys in the room who are going to be with you pretty much more than the time you’re going to spend with your family, and go from there. Because managing 25 men from different nationalities, different mentalities, coming from different places, it’s not an easy thing to do… So whenever I go down there, I rap about it, I preach about it. I let them know that’s the key.”
The ‘Homeboy’ Approach
GettyIn an analyst role with Fox Sports and countless commercials, Ortiz continues to share a larger-than-life personalities with the world
Ortiz was made available ahead of an ad campaign for Miller Lite that reimagines retired athletes as part of the 1975 “tastes great, less filling” promotions. He stars in a Spanish-language spot alongside Jorge Posada, who played catcher for the New York Yankees during the 2004 American League Championship Series that saw Ortiz and the Red Sox become the only team in MLB history to ever overcome a three-game deficit.
Reflecting on that series, Ortiz again underscored his ability to separate ego from even the bitterest of competitions.
“Me and Posada, we had so many battles in between the two of us, but it was always with elegance and respect,” he recalled.
His focus on making others comfortable served Ortiz well in his own clubhouse as well.
“I’m a homebody, I like to get everybody together, I like to make sure everybody’s taken care of,” he said. “I like respecting people. That’s my biggest concern, you know, respect, making sure that you don’t feel disrespected at all.”
That approach and the positive energy he exudes has helped him earn spots at the center of numerous commercials and a role on the Fox Sports analyst desk alongside former Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. It is perhaps why his playing-days nickname, “Big Papi,” has become more of a global brand than a clubhouse moniker. It could help explain why he went viral after whiffing on a gender reveal in January.
“I was the type of guy that, I was hated and loved at the same time by players and fans,” he said. “I’ll tell you why I was hated, because I did a lot of damage. But because of my personality, you know, people had no other choice but to love me. Like Yankees fans are the only fans who come to me like, ‘Hey, Papi man, I’m a Yankees fan but I love you, man. I respect you.’ Like, if I would get a dollar every time I hear that, I would be Bill Gates now — billionaire.”
It might be hard to imagine that a kid from Santo Domingo, growing up before MLB launched any significant international programs, who had never seen an MLB player in his life, would eventually become a three-time World Series champion, the star of Miller Lite ads and one of the greatest international success stories in American sports.
For Ortiz, though, there would be no changing of the past, no regrets and no complaints. Just the homeboy looking to spread love to others and see it return in kind.
“I would not change a thing because (my parents) taught me how to be humble, how to be a good person and how to get along with people, how to understand people, how to love people the way they are,” he said. “Once I learned that, that got me so many wonderful things coming in my direction.”