‘They got the best out of me’
Ortiz inducted into Red Sox Hall of Fame
BOSTON — Almost 20 years after the 2004 Red Sox snapped an 86-year title drought, David Ortiz has a proclamation to make.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t think it was any curse,” Ortiz said. “I think it was just about putting it all together as a team and winning a championship. We did it. Everybody came in and did something to win games in the regular season and executed in the playoffs.”
Curse or no curse, the ’04 Red Sox snapped the long World Series title drought to win their first championship since 1918, two years before they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 (the modern equivalent of about $1.8 million).
Ortiz’s role in breaking it as part of an exceptional 20-year career, 14 of which he spent in Boston, earned him an induction into the Red Sox Hall of Fame during a celebration at Fenway Park on Thursday night.
“It’s an honor man,” said a smiling Ortiz, who was dressed in an all-black suit, shiny gold and silver jewelry and a pair of black designer sunglasses. “Played here for so long. So many great memories in this organization. The Red Sox. The fans. I have so many stories to talk about for life based on my experience playing here. It’s a hell of an honor.”
Ortiz will also be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., this summer. But his time in Boston turned Ortiz from a peripheral big leaguer to one of the best big-game hitters this game has ever seen.
Ortiz said the lessons he learned in the Sox’ organization played a big role in his stardom, but it was the fanbase that really got him going.
“I would never complain about the fans here,” he said. “I don’t care what anybody says. The fans here support you. It gets colder here, it’s extremely hot here, it’s raining here and they found a way to be here. … The fans here are as good as they come. They motivated me every day. They got the best out of
me.”
Ortiz said he feels even more love from Red Sox fans during his retirement than he did during his playing days.
“Even better because I don’t play anymore, they already know what I did,” he said. “I always loved people around here. New England, it doesn’t matter where I go, people from New England are always wishing me the best, come to me with a lot of respect. Everybody thanks me for everything I did here and I thank them back, for motivating me to do what I did. It’s a backand-forth relationship.”
Joining Ortiz as this year’s induction into the Sox’s Hall of Fame were Manny Ramirez, who was not in attendance, Rich Gedman, the late Bill Dinneen and former Sox general manager Dan Duquette, who played a big role in
building the ’04 team that broke the curse.
“I’m just so grateful to be a part of it,” Duquette said. “The best part of being the Red Sox GM was coming to Fenway Park every day. My favorite day was Patriots’ Day. I’d start out in Acton, drive through Concord and see the minutemen on the march into the park, have a coffee and we’d watch the game, go see some of the runners that we knew, and the kids and I would come back in and play tennis off the Green Monster.”
Duquette was credited for a large portion of the ’04 team, including the signing of Ramirez and the trade acquisitions of Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek, among others.
“The Pedro Martinez trade is the trade you dream about making,” Duquette said of the deal that
brought Martinez from the Expos to Boston in exchange for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas before the ’98 season. “The Cy Young Award winner in the opposite league, and you can acquire him for minor leaguers? That’s a trade you dream about making.
“The other trade, for Lowe and Varitek, that’s a powerful trade because you’ve got two building blocks that were with you for a long time. Derek Lowe, Red Sox Hall of Famer, never spent a day on the disabled list in his entire career. So you’d be hard-pressed to find a guy that’s that reliable. And Jason Varitek, he’s still helping the club win ballgames. You can see him down there in the dugout. He took all his acumen as a catcher, as a leader, and he applies that to game-planning now. So he can manage whenever he wants to.”