Rivera was invited to Ortiz’s party here Saturday night, as was another former Yankee rival, Fox Sports colleague Alex Rodriguez. Also in town were several of Ortiz’s former teammates, including Johnny Damon, LaTroy Hawkins, Mike Lowell, Trot Nixon, Dustin Pedroia, Tim Wakefield, Kevin Youkilis and Dominican Republic Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez .
Many fans waved Dominican flags for Ortiz, who tossed around his homeland in his speech: “We have a lot of good, happy people, beautiful beaches you can go to when you’re freezing here,” he said. Ortiz’s daughter, Alex, sang the U.S. national anthem before the ceremony, and Ortiz spoke in her speech about her mother, Angela Rosa, who died in 2002.
“Going through that speech and putting it together, I cried a lot, to be honest with you, even this morning, every time I touched my mom,” Ortiz said. “It got to the point, repeating it over and over and over again, it kind of healed it.”
For Ortiz, the honor was exquisitely timed. He was shot in the back in the Dominican Republic in 2019, and it’s chilling to think how close he came to missing his own ceremony. Instead, he’s healthy and strong — the complete Big Papi on the biggest day of all.
“Thank God I’m ready, I don’t have any injuries, I’m back to normal,” Ortiz said later. “I always appreciate it and I thank God for everything.”