Why David Ortiz wept at the Hall of Fame

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - David Ortiz's introduction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame was a 15-minute film, one peppered with images of baseball legends and how baseball had helped shape them.

Ortiz sat watching intently, occasionally leaning on the rail in front of him to react to words of wisdom from Ozzie Smith, Rod Carew or Dennis Eckersley. Then came Tom Seaver's story of making sure every time he entered the Hall of Fame's Gallery - where the inductees' plaques hung - the pitcher would make sure to touch the image of Christy Mathewson.

Ortiz had never been in the room, but the idea of being drawn to that one player hit home.

"What (Seaver) said, I feel the exact same way about certain players. Like Kirby Puckett was my guy," Ortiz said immediately after the conclusion of the short film. "I had that commitment."

As it turned out, Ortiz had no idea how prescient he was.

After taking a tour of a tidal wave of memorabilia, Ortiz was finally brought to the room that housed the aforementioned bronze plaques hanging from pristine oak walls.

For Ortiz, it was a place that exhibited many of his heroes and even some of his friends. But one jumped out. That was Puckett, the former Twins star who Ortiz idolized as a youngster coming up in the Minnesota organization.

Sitting in his director's chair in front of a small group of media, Ortiz was asked about seeing Puckett's plaque. A day of laughs, smiles and frivolity was put on hold. The former Red Sox star suddenly couldn't speak, letting his emotions get the better of him.

During this day of all kinds of emotions, Ortiz had been struck with one he didn't quite see coming.

"Once my mom passed away, I struggled for a long time," he later explained. "I struggled missing her. And whenever I feel that way I will cry my ass off and I will feel better. I learned there’s nothing wrong with crying when your emotions take over. That’s the only way to let them out. That’s how I am. Whenever I get very emotional that’s how I speak out. It’s something that sometimes I feel embarrassed about. But it’s life, man. We’re human. At the end of the day, you are a Hall of Famers and now you are a human being and nobody can hold that against you.

"Today I walked into that room thinking of seeing Kirby’s plaque. Once I saw it, once I saw his face on that plaque I started thinking of a lot of things. But then I tried to walk away from it, then I got caught up in the question. Kirby was a really good friend to me. Kirby cared about me when I was just a kid. When I was nobody. I didn’t know who I was going to be or where I was going to end up, but he cared about me. That’s what life is all about. I don’t care about you because you are someone or something. I care about the human. I care about the human being and that to me means a lot. That’s what he did for me, and for a lot of other guys. If you go back to the team we had in Minnesota down there with guys like Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones, Matt Lawton, Eddie Guardado, LaTroy Hawkins, Denny Hocking. You ask them about Kirby and they will tell you because he was like that. That man encouraged me to do so many good things. He was fun to be around. Even with all the struggles he had to deal with, he was fun to be around and that’s all I care about. That’s why I got emotional when I thought about him because he was the type of human being."

For those following Ortiz's career as a baseball player, it was one of the few times the usually jovial giant could be seen shedding tears. Perhaps the only other time - even throughout all the tributes and ceremonies? That instance of standing on the Fenway Park mound following his final game in 2016.

"I didn’t’ realize until I was retiring until that moment," Ortiz remembered. "You talk about retiring and playing that last game. Once I got to the mound I realized that was going to be it. I realized I wasn’t going to hit any more homers. I wasn’t going to make people excited anymore. Because I know the happiness we bring to people. It’s something I really cared about why I played. You hear people talking, especially in New England, about the game and the things that we do. All those things came to me at once and that’s how I showed my emotion."

Nearly six years later, the tears started flowing again.

Kirby was his man. This was their moment. It is all part of the Hall of Fame story.

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Featured Image Photo Credit: WEEI.com photo