Column: How can David Ortiz want to do even more for Boston than he already has?

In November 2013, David Ortiz finished third in Boston’s mayoral election.

Don’t remember his campaign? Technically, that’s because he didn’t run for office; he finished third as a write-in candidate.

Had he actually wanted to throw his hat in that ring, he probably could’ve cruised to victory, given the different kind of campaign he’d just completed.

That election occurred less than two weeks after the slugger won World Series MVP and his third ring in a decade, the first Red Sox championship clinched at Fenway Park since 1918.

Ortiz never became Boston’s mayor, but he’s certainly the king of the hill. The Red Sox retired his number less than a year after his final game in 2016, and inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2020. The Brookline Avenue bridge over the Mass Pike, which ferries fans to and from the Kenmore MBTA station, bears his name, as does the street across from Fenway Park’s main entrance, and Gate 34 at Logan Airport. Last summer, he joined the ranks of legends in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ortiz earned all of these honors. His clutch bat saved games, seasons even, and his vocal, unrestrained words reinvigorated a broken city.

Yet, according to him, everything he’s done for Boston isn’t enough.

Appearing on Audacy’s ‘The Bret Boone Podcast‘ on Wednesday, Ortiz opened up about how he deeply connected he feels with the city he considers his second home.

“The city of Boston is something that, in my life, in general, has been a game-changer,” he told Boone. “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.”

Ortiz wasn’t an everyday player in Minnesota, nor was he given that chance right away with the Red Sox. An intervention by Pedro Martinez opened that door in Boston, and changed both of their lives, their teammates’ lives, the organization, its fans, and the region forever. Ortiz went from being a released former Twins hitter with upside to the most clutch hitter in Red Sox history, and eternal face of the franchise.

“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 explained. “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.”

“I’m married to that city in the type of way that I can never let them down, even now that I’m retired.”

Marriage is an apt comparison for Ortiz and Boston. They’ve been together in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, even death can never fully part them.

Throughout his Red Sox career, he sustained and recovered from injuries. When he was shot in the Dominican Republic in June 2019, the organization quickly sent a plane to bring him back to Mass General Hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries. Ortiz credits the team’s quick work and the MGH staff with saving his life.

Ortiz arrived in Boston for the 85th year of the Curse of the Bambino, pretty much as bad as bad times in baseball can get, and then watched none other than Bret Boone’s younger brother and the New York Yankees make things even worse in the 2003 ALCS. The following year, Ortiz’s back-to-back walk-offs in Games 4 and 5 of the ALCS flipped the script on the Yankees in a way never seen before in baseball history, and not done since. By the end of that October, he and his teammates were curse-breakers and champions.

In April 2013, Ortiz was rehabbing in the minor leagues when two brothers set off homemade explosives at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three and injuring hundreds. Determined to be with the Red Sox when they returned from their road trip, he decided his rehab assignment was over. In their first game back at Fenway, he walked onto the field, picked up the microphone, swore on live television, and took Boston back from the terrorists.

Months later, he and his teammates completed a season-long love letter to the city by winning the World Series at Fenway for the first time since 1918.

Multiple times throughout his Red Sox, Ortiz became a free agent and took hometown discounts to stay in Boston. How many players do that?

In September 2017, less than a year after his final game, the Red Sox gave Ortiz a lifetime contract of sorts, so he’ll always be part of the organization. How many players in MLB history received something like that?

How many retired players come back year after year to impart wisdom and mentor the next generation?

During the Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesach), it’s customary to sing “Dayenu,” which means “It would’ve been enough.” Being freed from slavery in Egypt would’ve been enough, splitting the Red Sea would’ve been enough, and so on.

2004 would’ve been enough. 2007 would’ve been enough. “This is our [expletive] city” would’ve been enough. 2013 would’ve been enough. 500 home runs would’ve been enough. No other Red Sox player ever wearing 34 would’ve been enough. The Hall of Fame would’ve been enough. All the hours and millions in philanthropic efforts would’ve been enough.

All this to say, if David Ortiz hasn’t given enough to this city, no one has.