Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/732873
PhotograPhy by Matthew J. Lee/The BosTon GloBe via getty iMages (tiffany ortiz); brian bLanco/getty iMages (bradLey, Jr.); MichaeL ivins/boston red sox/getty iMages (worLd series troPhy, sPeech); MichaeL bLanchard (Make-a-wish); courtesy of david ortiz chiLdren's fund (hosPitaL visit) slump. But making a difference in somebody else's life, not everybody's capable of. And that is important to me." While Ortiz has spent the majority of 2016 tearing the covers off baseballs, this will be his final year. Sure, the sport thrived in Boston long before Ortiz arrived, and the Red Sox train will chug along for many years to come. But the Ortiz era—we're unlikely to see anything like it again soon. The transformation of the franchise from perennial heartbreakers to regular champions cannot be overstated, and Ortiz was the central figure in all three World Series victories. "He just became this, dare I say, this Ruthian figure that was undaunted and undeterred by anything," Massarotti says. "The guy was fearless, and downright bloodless in pressure situations. The Red Sox are not who they are today without this guy." While his clutch hits in October of 2004 would have been enough to put Ortiz on track to one day get a statue outside Fenway Park, it was only the beginning of the city's love affair with him. He won another World Series three years later; he cele- brated becoming an American citizen; he established the David Ortiz Children's Fund, helping kids receive medical treatment both in Boston and his native Dominican Republic; he broke a 68-year-old single-season franchise record for home runs; he provided a historically dominant performance in leading the Red Sox to a third title, in 2013; and he has delivered the finest swan song in the long and storied history of baseball. But in April 2013, Ortiz offered what will undoubt- edly be remembered as his most profound contribution to Boston. It was on a baseball diamond, yes, but it had nothing to do with baseball. Five days prior, the finish line of the Boston Marathon had been bombed. The city had been shut down for a frightful manhunt for one of the culprits, forcing the Red Sox to postpone their first home game since the attack. Shaken, 35,000 people filed into Fenway on a Saturday afternoon, but it didn't feel right to move on to something as trivial as sports. Certainly nobody knew what to say. Ortiz stepped onto the field and raised his fist. "This is our fucking city!" he roared. "Nobody's gonna dictate our freedom!" The crowd roared back. David Ortiz, as always, came through in the clutch. Ortiz's only regret about the speech is that children heard him cursing. ("I was not aware that he was going to drop an F-bomb," Lucchino laughs, "but it didn't bother me when he did, because it seemed so completely sincere and appropriate.") Beyond that, the moment remains a point of pride for the man whom Boston relied on in a time of need. "When you get angry and you get mad, that's the first thing that you think of," Ortiz explains. "And I was angry. I was mad. I was very emotional because of everything that was going down, as a citizen in Boston. The Marathon is part of what we are. Even if you're not from Boston or you don't live in Boston, the Marathon makes you a part of it." "And then something like that goes down, you just—you feel it deeply," he adds, taking a beat to step back out of that moment. "So [the speech] went down that way, and I'm happy and proud the way it went down, because it motivated a lot of people to get back together and go back to what we used to be before that." Now, with the finishing touches placed on his final season and the farewell gifts handed out, Boston must prepare itself for life without him. Surely, life will go on, and so will baseball. But there will never be another David Ortiz. The man, like his jour- ney and his lasting impact, is truly one of a kind. . "When you can make somebody feel better about himself, When you can make a difference in somebody else's life, i think that is What to me matters the most." — david ortiz 82 bostoncommon-magazine.com