David Ortiz: 'I Started This [Career], I Think I Deserve To Finish It'
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- David Ortiz has delivered some of the most historic moments in Red Sox history. Yet, for varying reasons, he's managed to be the recipient of his fair share of criticism, both from the fans and the media. For as great as some of the moments have been, there's always been an oil-and-water aspect to Ortiz's relationship with Boston at times.
That's something that, even after Ortiz announced that the 2016 season will be his last, reared its head yet again in recent months.
The idea of a "retirement tour," in the style of Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera, rubbed many folks the wrong way. It can be seen as too narcissistic, too selfish in a team sport where the focus should be on winning. The Yankees didn't make the playoffs in the final years of Rivera (2013) and Jeter (2014), making all the pomp and circumstance look that much more out of place. (Don't tell that to the Yankees, who celebrated a meaningless September win as if it came in the 12th inning Game 7 of the World Series.)
But, hey, David Ortiz has a message for you: it doesn't matter what you think. He wants to go out in his own way, and he feels that's something he deserves.
"Doesn't matter how much people talk about you. It doesn't matter how famous you get. It don't matter how many homers I get," Ortiz said in the first chapter of a season-long documentary. "The only one who will know what it took for me to get here to where I am right now, is myself. It's my career. I started this, I think I deserve to finish it."
The documentary, "David Ortiz – The Last Walk Off," was announced by ESPN on Monday. It will consist of four short features posted online throughout the series, something that will surely only provide fodder for the anti-retirement-tour party.
And of course, if Ortiz bats .200 in April with two homers, or if the Red Sox sit seven games under .500 by Memorial Day, or both, then the publishing of these videos will certainly appear to be a bit unseemly. But to anyone who wants to take a behind-the-scenes look at one of the greatest players in Red Sox history as he bids the game farewell, it ought to be a rather interesting production.
"I know I'm gonna get emotional through the season, so I'm kind of saving it," Ortiz said in the first chapter. "But I know I will. I've seen it before and, it's not an easy thing to do, you know, and I'm very emotional. So I know that emotions, I'm going to get kind of into the emotions at some point."
Check out chapter one at ESPN.com.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
