David Ortiz on Boston: ‘I want I may give them greater than what I already did’

Pink Sox

“That metropolis made me a greater participant, a greater particular person. It principally received me higher at all the things.”

David Ortiz’s resume speaks for itself.

Throughout his 14 seasons in Boston, Ortiz earned 10 All-Star nods, seven Silver Slugger accolades, and performed a central position in three World Collection titles. His dominant play on the plate and postseason heroics finally led to his enshrinement in Cooperstown.

However throughout a current look on “The Bret Boone Podcast”, Ortiz admitted that he wished he achieved much more throughout his lauded tenure with Boston. 

“Town of Boston is one thing that in my life, basically, has been a game-changer,” Ortiz stated. “I want I may give them greater than what I already did as a result of that metropolis made me a greater participant, a greater particular person. It principally received me higher at all the things.”

Regardless that Ortiz established himself as arguably the best designated hitter in baseball historical past, he acknowledged that he didn’t know what to anticipate when he first signed with Boston as a free agent in January 2003.

“It was the kind of dedication that you simply don’t know if you happen to’re going to stroll right into a dedication like that till you’re within the center,” Ortiz stated. “Generally that’s what I attempt to inform younger gamers these days. You don’t know who you might be getting married to till 10 years later.”

Regardless of clubbing 20 residence runs and driving in 75 runs over 125 video games in his closing season with the Twins in 2002, Ortiz’s first contract with Boston was a one-year, $1.25 million contract. He wasn’t even anticipated to be Boston’s go-to DH, with that position going to Jeremy Giambi within the early months of the 2003 marketing campaign.

At one level, that lack of taking part in time even prompted Ortiz to hunt a commerce out of Boston.

“David was pissed off and fairly down, although he tried to not let it seep into the clubhouse,” former Pink Sox common supervisor Theo Epstein stated, as transcribed by NESN’s Mike Cole again in 2016. “He despatched [agent] Fern Cuza to see me, and we chatted within the participant parking zone at Fenway after a sport.

Cuza stated that David beloved it in Boston, however that not being within the lineup was driving him loopy. He stated David needed to be traded until we might get him within the lineup daily. I advised Fern to offer me every week and we’d discover a method to get David within the lineup.”

The remaining, as they are saying, is historical past.

“I’m married to that metropolis in the kind of approach that I can by no means allow them to down, even now that I’m retired as a result of they embrace me like that and I don’t even know that I used to be strolling into that sport,” Ortiz stated. “However I adore it.

“No matter I can do for that metropolis or for any metropolis in america, I’ll get it executed as a result of being an American citizen for a very long time, that nation has given my household and myself a chance and I’ll at all times recognize that.”