The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

Ortiz and Sox: A Source of Healing

The concept of a hero athlete, a player that becomes a city icon, loyal to one team, was outdated long before LeBron James left his home state to take his talents to South Beach. The concept of the athlete as a role model left town way before Luis Suarez sank his teeth into Branislav Ivanovic in a game last weekend in the English Premier League.

In addition, athletes generally stay away from controversy at all costs, always saying the “right” thing, which amounts to saying nothing at all.

But David Ortiz has bucked those trends for years, doing everything he can to stay with the Red Sox, and spoke for everyone in the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts on Saturday when he addressed the Fenway Park crowd before the Red Sox game against Kansas City.

With the team wearing uniforms with “Boston” stitched across the front instead of “Red Sox,” Ortiz delivered an impassioned speech, where he said five words that articulated what everybody was feeling.

“This is our f—— city,” he said, sending Fenway into a frenzy and causing yet another Twitter stir.

It was unscripted, raw, emotional. It was real. It was just what the city needed to hear. It was the cathartic moment that rallied the city together, and started the healing process.

In times of tribulation, for all our divisions, we still look up to leaders. A nervy nation still tunes into President Obama for words of reassurance, Chris Christie and his fleece sweatshirts become a bipartisan symbol and the police move from a symbol of oppression to the symbol of safety.

Sports unify a community. I don’t have to remind you the effect Mike Piazza’s home run in the Mets’ first post-9/11 game had to the city. Well, the Red Sox mean more to Boston than the Mets could ever to Queens. A Red Sox hat is a wardrobe staple for hipsters, gangsters, lax bros, preps and any other stereotype you can think of.

Boston isn’t like other big cities (if you even consider it to be “big”). It’s parochial, close-knit – a city with a small-town field. Athletes can’t blend in among the 8 million other faces like they can in New York. The sports media is even crazier than New York’s. In short, it has all the fanaticism of a small town team like Green Bay, with the market size of a big city.

Some players wilt under the spotlight. Most find a way to maneuver it. Few embrace it.

Ortiz embraces it, and embraces his role as a role model. The Red Sox garner the lion’s share of that press, even through all the successes of the other Boston teams. The Red Sox are a secular religion in Boston, and David Ortiz is its leader.

Too often, our athletes disappoint us. They leave for more money or if the team isn’t good enough. We, as fans, love them, but they care little about us in return.

“It was something I said,” Ortiz told reporters, explaining his speech. “I don’t know how emotional I get sometimes. What we’ve been through this week, that was my feeling. I was hurting like everyone else. That’s how I am.”

Ortiz is Boston Strong. His passion for the city shone through in his speech, and helped lift a grieving city. In the process, he showed how a conscientious athlete can use his status to help the fans that put him on such a pedestal.

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About the Contributor
Michael E. Cunniff, Editor-in-Chief
I'm Mike Cunniff, a junior journalism major and the sports editor here at the Torch. When I was a little kid, I decided I wanted to be a sports announcer when I grew up. I used to turn down the volume while my beloved Patriots played and do my best Greg Gumbel impression as Drew Bledsoe fired pass after pass into the waiting arms of opposing cornerbacks. That was my dream until I was about 14, when I realized that I had neither the dapper looks or silky baritone voice to warrant plastering my face all over television (and billboards, and magazine covers. Dare to dream, right?). I realized, when I wasn't plagiarizing Sparknotes when writing English essays (kidding, mostly) that I actually enjoyed writing, and decided that writing about sports suited me better than talking about them. My favorite sports to watch/cover are basketball and soccer. I actually used to be a halfway decent shooting guard back in the day, before I did my knee in the offseason before senior year. I still love all four Boston teams (the Revs don't count), as well as Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League (I talk about them too much). I'm probably better than you at FIFA 12. Outside of sports and journalism, I like The Office, Bagels 'N' Cream, road trips and karaoke. __________ I like to joke with Mike that he’d react the same way to the Zombie apocalypse as he would in covering a major news break on campus — which is to say he wouldn’t really react in any particular way at all. Nothing seems to phase him. Anything — ANYTHING — could happen on campus, and I am confident that Mike would lead the Torch in the best possible reportage for that story. He has already demonstrated that ability in his superb coverage of the Sports section, and I know that ability would translate in a much larger role next year. -Bill San Antonio Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus

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