Northeastern students donned their Tuesday best to Blackman Auditorium Nov. 4: Red Sox jerseys, hats and jackets. After all, David Ortiz was on Northeastern’s campus, cementing another moment of baseball history on Huntington Avenue.
Ortiz, a first ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, visited Northeastern as part of the Council of University Programs, or CUP, and Resident Student Association’s, or RSA, homecoming showcase event. RSA and CUP hosted Ortiz for a Q&A, with third-year marine biology major Anna Eaton as the moderator. Big Papi charismatically grasped the audience’s attention with his answers and filled Blackman with laughs and insight on what it takes to be a Major League Baseball legend.
Ortiz’s MLB career was nothing short of spectacular. He was a 10-time All-Star, seven-time Silver Slugger, and the list goes on. He also led the Red Sox to their first World Series win in 86 years in 2004, as well as in 2007, 2013 and 2018.
Ortiz began by discussing what Boston means to him after spending 14 seasons in the city as a player; he also travels back and forth to work with the team in his current position in the Red Sox front office as a special assistant to the Fenway Sports Group. Ortiz recalled loving the North End Italian restaurants and the summers, but the cold was the reason he relocated.
Before Ortiz’s time in Boston, he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners before joining the Minnesota Twins. When he was with the Twins, Ortiz went through all three levels of minor league baseball, and in his own words, “destroyed.”
For Ortiz, the main difference between playing in Minnesota and Boston was the opportunities. According to Ortiz, Minnesota had 14 rookies in his first year, so it was hard to find playing time. In Boston, the coaches gave him the chance right away.
“Here in Boston, they don’t care if you’re a rookie or veteran, they just want you to follow up with everything they require,” Ortiz said on the stage. “It was easy for me to become part of the pack.”
One of Ortiz’s most well-known accomplishments is breaking the “Curse of the Bambino” when he was part of the Red Sox’s historic 2004 World Series win. According to Ortiz, when he walked into the clubhouse that year, he was standing in the midst of his idols, but there was a lack of cohesion. He believes he united everyone together by beginning to hang out with Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez, bringing them together. Then the rest of the team followed.
For Ortiz, the best part of winning the World Series and playing in Boston was doing it for the fans.
“It was something very special for this city,” Ortiz said about the 2004 win. “We almost went in 2003, and we lost to the freaking Yankees. That one night, I saw people crying. I saw people really suffering, and that stuck with me the entire offseason. I never saw that in Minnesota. When you come to play in Boston and you have true fans, people that lived through it and support, it was like the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Talking about the Yankees still fires up Ortiz, and he misses what the rivalry between the teams used to be.
“It would start like a baseball game and end like a WWE match,” Ortiz said. “You guys are missing the good part because there’s so many rules. You can’t even pitch, can’t do nothing, it’s so boring.”
Although the 2025 season may not have ended as the Red Sox hoped, Ortiz is optimistic about the future of the club and especially the development of young players like Roman Anthony.
The Q&A concluded with rapid fire trivia for Ortiz about himself, a game of this-or-that and a signed baseball giveaway for a fan.
Whether he’s off to Cancun or spending his time working in the Red Sox front office, Big Papi will stay his happy self as long as “daaaaa Yankees lose.”
