David Ortiz on Boston: ‘I wish I can give them more than what I already did’

"That city made me a better player, a better person. It basically got me better at everything.”

David Ortiz won three World Series titles in his 14 seasons with the Red Sox. Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff

August 9, 2023

2 minutes to read

David Ortiz’s resume speaks for itself.

During his 14 seasons in Boston, Ortiz earned 10 All-Star nods, seven Silver Slugger accolades, and played a central role in three World Series titles. His dominant play at the plate and postseason heroics eventually led to his enshrinement in Cooperstown.

But during a recent appearance on “The Bret Boone Podcast”, Ortiz admitted that he wished he accomplished even more during his lauded tenure with Boston.

“The city of Boston is something that in my life, in general, has been a game-changer,” Ortiz said. “I wish I can give them more than what I already did because that city made me a better player, a better person. It basically got me better at everything.”

Even though Ortiz established himself as arguably the greatest designated hitter in baseball history, he acknowledged that he didn’t know what to expect when he first signed with Boston as a free agent in January 2003.

“It was the type of commitment that you don’t know if you’re going to walk into a commitment like that until you’re in the middle,” Ortiz said. “Sometimes that’s what I try to tell young players nowadays. You don’t know who you are getting married to until 10 years later.”

Despite clubbing 20 home runs and driving in 75 runs over 125 games in his final season with the Twins in 2002, Ortiz’s first contract with Boston was a one-year, $1.25 million contract. He wasn’t even expected to be Boston’s go-to DH, with that role going to Jeremy Giambi in the early months of the 2003 campaign.

At one point, that lack of playing time even prompted Ortiz to seek a trade out of Boston.

“David was frustrated and pretty down, though he tried not to let it seep into the clubhouse,” former Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said, as transcribed by NESN’s Mike Cole back in 2016. “He sent [agent] Fern Cuza to see me, and we chatted in the player parking lot at Fenway after a game.

Cuza said that David loved it in Boston, but that not being in the lineup was driving him crazy. He said David wanted to be traded unless we could get him in the lineup every day. I told Fern to give me a week and we’d find a way to get David in the lineup.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

“I’m married to that city in the type of way that I can never let them down, even now that I’m retired because they embrace me like that and I don’t even know that I was walking into that game,” Ortiz said. “But I love it.

“Whatever I can do for that city or for any city in the United States, I will get it done because being an American citizen for a long time, that country has given my family and myself an opportunity and I will always appreciate that.”