David Ortiz helped his adopted city recover from the Boston Marathon bombings. Now the Boston Red Sox are calling on their fans to reciprocate for their beloved Big Papi.
“We all remember in 2013 when we needed David Ortiz the most, he was there for us,” team president Sam Kennedy said Monday, a day after the longtime slugger was wounded in a nightclub shooting in his native Dominican Republic. “So it’s appropriate and expected that his community would rally behind David when he needs us most.”nike nfl jerseys for cheap
Ortiz, 43, was shot at a club in Santo Domingo. A team of surgeons operated on Ortiz for six hours and repaired damage done by the bullet to both intestines and his liver. They also had to remove Ortiz’s gallbladder to work on the liver, though the gallbladder itself was not damaged.
“I didn’t sleep very well last night,” said Red Sox special assistant Jason Varitek, who was Ortiz’s teammate for nearly a decade. “I don’t think anybody did.”
The shooting occurred during Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final and stole the city’s attention from the Bruins’ victory, as fans and former teammates stayed up into the morning hoping for information on Ortiz’s condition. Longtime rivals turned to social media to offer their best wishes, and former Dominican president Leonel Fernandez visited Ortiz in the hospital.
“It shocked us to the core,” Kennedy said. “It was jarring, stunning and, frankly, terrifying. It was a horrific incident. Our focus right now is exclusively to focus on his health and well-being [and] to get David back here in Boston.”cheap nike nfl jerseys china
The Red Sox sent an air ambulance to the Dominican Republic to transport Ortiz to Boston, where he will continue his treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital. Kennedy said he hoped Ortiz would be arriving in the city sometime Monday night.
The team asked fans to observe a moment of reflection shortly before Monday night’s game against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park and posted on the videoboard: “We send our love to David Ortiz.”
“I just hope when he gets here that everything is fine, and we can see the big man here again with us and filling our room with joy,” manager Alex Cora said. “He’s bigger than life.” In the sixth inning, fans broke out into cheers of “Papi!” and cheered when pictures of fans in his No. 34 jersey were shown on the scoreboard.
