It's hard to not get romantic about baseball.
The game reflects life like no other, with moments that will make you scream in anger, rejoice in celebration, or simply cry from overwhelming emotion. For many of these moments, people say 'You don't have to be a baseball fan to feel this way'. While that may be true for many areas of the United States, it differs in Massachusetts. We are Red Sox fans, and we have seen it all. Our parents and our parents' parents watched the Sox lose for 86 years until the year 2004. The reverse of the curse. World Series champions. We've gone mad outside the Cask 'n Flagon, we've felt defeated in a ballpark where smiles are endless, and we've felt hurt when we lose one of our own. You don't have to be a Red Sox fan to know who David Ortiz is, but you won't understand this painful goodbye if you aren't one.
Being born in the late 90's, I came into the world during a time before all the championships, a time before Boston claimed it's 'Title Town' status in any other sport besides basketball. The Patriots were not quite the unstoppable force of the NFL, the Bruins were at an all-time low, and the Celtics were preparing for a rebuild. But as I got older and could start to understand and watch sports, there was something to be said about the Boston Red Sox. No one could quite put a finger on it, but that team had something special. There was no way anyone could have predicted a brand new era in Red Sox baseball in January of 2003, when Minnesota Twin David Ortiz signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox coming out of free agency. He would occasionally pinch hit and start at Designated Hitter, but there was no way of telling what kind of player he was going to be in the bigger picture of Red Sox history. That is, until 2004.
You can measure a typical sports rivalry by wins and losses, head-to-head battles and even overall popularity of the two teams involved. The Boston Red Sox vs. The New York Yankees was no typical rivalry. As fans we are bred by the idea of the Yankees being pure evil, an organization made up of disgusting and lowly human beings. For years, Sox fans had to watch our team seemingly always find a way to lose, while the Yankees would go on to win 26 World Series Championships (along with a 27th in 2009). But not in 2004. Down 3-0 to the Yanks in the ALCS, we staged the greatest comeback in the history of sports to beat the Yankees 4-3 in seven games, led by the incredible performance of David Ortiz. Big Papi hit a walk-off two-run homer in the 12th inning of Game 4, as well as a walk-off single in the 14th inning of Game 5, pushing the Sox towards the 2004 World Series.
I'll never forget the night Papi and the team full of "Idiots" completed the sweep against the St. Louis Cardinals to claim their first World Series win since 1918. The only curse that was alive and well in Boston, Massachusetts, was the Curse of Big Papi. From then on the people of Boston had the privilege of watching David Ortiz crush home runs as Boston's prized power hitter. The Sox would prove that 2004 was no fluke when they captured their second World Series win of the 21st century in 2007, with Ortiz batting at .370 and totaling 3 home runs and a whopping 10 RBIs in the postseason. The Sox would experience a few rough years following that win, but Ortiz would never lose a step. Six years later, in 2013, the Red Sox once again would defeat the Cardinals in the World Series. Big Papi, now a veteran of the team, would win World Series MVP after a home run each in games 1 and 2. It was in 2013 that one word became synonymous with Ortiz: Cooperstown.
But in Boston, it's about more than just the numbers. There's a certain air to playing for one of our teams, but no team epitomizes the hard working people of Boston like the Red Sox. It can be difficult to understand until you've lived here for so long, and David knew this so well. No one else could've lifted the entire city's spirits up in a rallying speech following the devastating Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. The smiles he gave us over the years and the charity involvement he had with Boston further depict the character of Ortiz and the love he has for this city.
It's extremely difficult to realize now that the Red Sox 2016 season is over, that David Ortiz's career is over. Very few sports legends get to go out on top the way he did, although that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. I still feel that a simple thank-you doesn't reflect how much Ortiz has meant to me and to many others.
David, thank you for captivating us and building faith in a city that had lacked it for so long. Thank you for keeping us smiling even when we lost. Thank you for truly loving us the way that we loved you. Thank you for everything. Kids like me grew up 20 years ago only knowing that the Red Sox will always find ways to lose. Thank you for making sure that 20 years from now, I can tell my kids that the Red Sox will always find ways to win.
