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The Boston Red Sox Saturday, April 18, 2020 * The Boston Globe Fenway Park is ready to play ball, even though we are not Stan Grossfeld The grass is perfect and the old ballpark is squeaky clean — it was scrubbed and disinfected for viral pathogens for three days in March. Spending a few hours at Fenway Park is good for the soul. The ballpark is totally silent. The mound and home plate are covered by tarps and the foul lines aren’t drawn yet, but it feels as if there still could be a game played today. The sun’s warmth reflecting off The Wall feels good. The tug of the past is all around but the future is the great unknown. In Fenway, zoom is still a word to describe a Chris Sale fastball, not a video conferencing app. Old friend Terry Francona and the Cleveland Indians would have been here this weekend and there would’ve been big hugs by the batting cage and the rhythmic crack of bat meeting ball. But now gaining access is nearly impossible and includes health questions and safety precautions and a Fenway security escort. Visitors must wear a respiratory mask, gloves, and practice social distancing, larger than the lead Dave Roberts got on Mariano Rivera in the 2004 ALCS. Carissa Unger of Green City Growers in Somerville is planting organic vegetables for Fenway Farms, located on the rooftop of the park. She is one of the few allowed into the ballpark. The harvest this year all will be donated to a local food pantry. Unger is used to interacting with thousands of fans on tours and is startled to see visitors. “It’s nice and peaceful and quiet today, but we miss seeing the tourists and we obviously miss having the games,” she said. “It’s good to see somebody up here.” * The Boston Herald Red Sox’ 10-best seasons in the last 10 years: No. 1, 2016 David Ortiz Jason Mastrodonato For me, choosing the best season I’ve covered in my 10 years as a Red Sox reporter was easy, but I know a lot of you would’ve chosen differently. I know Mookie Betts was statistically a more valuable player in 2018 than David Ortiz was in 2016. I know that Ortiz didn’t play defense and Betts was a Gold Glover in right field. I know that Jacoby Ellsbury added more daily value with his near-MVP season in 2011. And that a dominant Chris Sale in 2017 was worth more to a franchise’s win total. On paper, that is. I also know what I saw, what I felt and what I heard other people say about the way they felt. And in the 10 years I’ve covered baseball, I’ve never seen or felt an individual impact a baseball team the way Ortiz did in 2016 (though Alex Cora’s arrival in 2018 would be in second place). From the beginning of spring training, the idea of Ortiz playing his final season at age 40, and retiring at the end of it, truly did not seem believable. Ortiz himself acknowledged that he wasn’t 100 percent sure. He gave himself just enough of a window to wiggle free of his commitment and play again at 41 (he was still under contract, if he wanted it). “I don’t know how it’s going to be right after I’m done,” he said that February. “I haven’t experienced that. But I think I’m ready to pass the torch. I think right now everything is going in the right direction, so I’ll let you guys know. I’ve seen a lot of athletes, once they’re done, at some point, for some reason, a lot of us kind of feel like we still got something in the tank to come back. Hopefully that’s not my case.” Most of us never thought he was going to retire. As soon as the season started, when he homered in the Sox’ Opening Day win in Cleveland, it seemed like he made a mistake. Maybe he didn’t realize how good he still was. Throughout the year, there was a never-ending conversation between Ortiz and those of us watching him. We rarely actually talked about it, but he communicated with us on the field. All year long, he was telling us he wasn’t done. On April 15, he stole second base, which maybe doesn’t seem like a noteworthy event now, but it was at the time. Not many 40-year-olds are still stealing bases. Not many 40-year-olds with painful plantar fasciitis in both feet, which required lengthy care after every game, were still pushing themselves that hard. It seems like an act of defiance performed by some of baseball’s greats. If you go through the pages on Baseball Reference, you’ll see a few handfuls of stolen bases by 40-year- olds like Greg Maddux (yes, the pitcher), Chipper Jones, Kenny Lofton, Ichiro Suzuki, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Jim Edmonds, Craig Biggio, Barry Larkin, Rickey Henderson, Tony Gwynn, Tim Raines, Wade Boggs and Eddie Murray, among others. It’s as if they were all saying, “I’m over the hill, but I’ve still got it.” Ortiz was asked about the steal after the game in April and brushed it off like it was just something most people did at 40. “Uh, I don’t know,” he said. “Later in the game, I guess. Got two strikes. It was a good time to go.” He stole second again one last time in June on Father’s Day. His son, D’Angelo, was at so many of his dad’s games right until the end. He was around enough that David Price, once Ortiz’s enemy in the game, made note of it after Ortiz’s last game that October. “You look at D’Angelo, his little boy — he couldn’t be more respectful or polite,” Price said. “That comes from the parents. In this day and age, to raise a kid in a baseball clubhouse and be as respectful and polite that he is, that shows volumes of the father that Big Papi is. And to me that’s very special.” As Ortiz took off for second base against Edwin Diaz in a one-run game in the seventh inning that Father’s Day, the entire crowd at Fenway Park stood up and cheered for minutes. The noise grew louder as Ortiz slid into second, popped up and wiped the dust off his gloves. When reporters gathered around his locker after the game, in which Ortiz was a nondescript 1-for-3 without an RBI, Ortiz looked at us and said, “What are we talking about today, because I didn’t do (expletive)?” He knew what he did. “I got a standing ovation for stealing a bag,” he said. How’d it feel? “Not good. I’m hurting now.” Well, why’d you steal then? “I just took the first pitch, watched how long it was taking him to release the ball and that’s it,” he said. Like it was nothing. As Ortiz continued to hit for average and power in one of the greatest seasons of his career, it was in those moments when he defied his age that gave life to the growing idea that there was no way he was going to retire. A big day for that was May 14, a home game against the Astros. Clay Buchholz got smoked early and the Sox were down 5-2 in the second inning. Ortiz homered in the third to make it 5-3. It was 5-4 with two outs in the ninth inning, when Ortiz stepped up with a man on first. He smacked one to dead center. Jake Marisnick, a terrific outfielder, gave chase and made a full-out dive toward the wall, but missed by a few feet. He was so upset he slammed the wall before looking for the ball. Ortiz ran to third with the game-tying triple. The list of 40-year-olds with a triple is almost identical as the one with 40-year-olds with a stolen base. Among the game’s most prolific runners like Lofton and Henderson, you’ll find Ortiz’s name too. In the bottom of the 11th, Ortiz hit a walk-off double. He did a postgame interview with WEEI and NESN, then took off before the rest of us got a chance to interview him. It was his daughter’s quinceanera. The game had gone into extras and he was running late. Ortiz was hitting .321 at the end of April, .335 at the end of May and .336 at the end of June. About every other week, somebody would ask him if he was still planning to retire. He would usually deflect the question and say something about the team trying to stay hot and keeping their focus on the World Series. He never would say for sure. He was leading the Red Sox’ MLB-best offense in most categories and had become the most dangerous hitter in the big leagues. In September, when Ortiz was collecting his final gifts and retirement was looking less like a threat and more like a sentence baseball fans were coming to accept, Red Sox owner John Henry was asked if he believed it. “He’s earned the right to end his career the way he wants to end his career,” Henry said. “That’s all I have to say about that.” Henry added, “It’ll be hard to say that there’s ever been a player who’s meant more to an organization.” Ortiz hit his 541st and final home run on Sept.

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