BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox want to send Big Papi out as a winner.
From the moment designated hitter David Oritz announced that this will be his last season, his team and teammates have been thinking about a fitting way to send him into retirement. Their conclusion: No specially commissioned rocking chair or autographed piece of the Green Monster would mean as much to their longtime leader as another World Series ring.
“Hopefully, that manifests itself in him going out on top,” general manager Mike Hazen said on Thursday before the 77th annual dinner for the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. “That’s what he’s talked about. That’s all he’s talked about.”
When Ortiz came to Boston in 2003, he had just been released by the Minnesota Twins and the Red Sox were still stuck in an eight-decade championship drought.
The Dominican DH helped the franchise win the World Series in 2004, and again in ’07 and ’13. In the process, he established himself as a clubhouse leader, one of the top sluggers in the game and one of the most popular athletes in Boston history.
But since the 2013 World Series, in which Ortiz batted .688 to earn series MVP honors, the Red Sox have finished in last place in the AL East two years in a row.
“If you’re a fan of the game of baseball; if you’re a fan of the Boston Red Sox or a player for the Boston Red Sox, it should be pretty apparent what he’s meant to this ballclub,” Hazen said. “Nobody wants to watch somebody like that finish up their career that way.”
On the day that he turned 40, he said in a video posted on The Players Tribune in November that he would retire after the 2016 season – his 14th with the Red Sox. “Time is up,” he said at the end, “so let’s enjoy the season.”
“He’s trying to go out on top,” said outfielder Mookie Betts, one of the 20-somethings who are expected to be the nucleus of the next Red Sox era. “That’s our goal: to help him go out on top.”
More than 400 people attended the dinner on Thursday night after the Red Sox finished last for the third time in four years. Red Sox award winners included Xander Bogaerts, the Thomas A. Yawkey Red Sox MVP and Ortiz himself for the “Milestone Moment” – his 500th home run.
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