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David Ortiz is clutch on and off the field. Photo courtesy of the\u00a0Players Tribune.<\/em><\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard to single out just two moments from his impressive career, but retired\u00a0Boston Red Sox<\/a>\u00a0slugger David Ortiz has twice uplifted the entire New England region: once with his bat and once with his words.<\/p>\n In 2004\u2019s American League Championship Series against the rival New York Yankees, Ortiz smacked game-winning, extra-inning, elimination-avoiding walk-off hits\u00a0on back-to-back nights<\/em>\u00a0at Fenway Park to lead the Red Sox to the greatest comeback in\u00a0sports history<\/a>\u00a0and their first World Series win in 86 years.<\/p>\n And in 2013, five days after the Boston Marathon bombings, the man best known as\u00a0Big Papi<\/a>\u00a0stepped to the microphone in a pregame ceremony at Fenway Park and issued a defiant off-the-cuff\u00a0declaration<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right, Boston,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cThis jersey that we wear today, it doesn\u2019t say \u2018Red Sox.\u2019 It says \u2018Boston.\u2019 We want to thank you, Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, the whole police department, for the great job that they did this past week.\u201d<\/p>\n Then he swung for the fences: \u201cThis is our [expletive] city. And nobody\u2019s going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I said that, it was because I knew Boston felt it,\u201d Ortiz says today. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t me thinking of something to say, it was how I knew Boston felt after that happened. You can\u2019t mess with this city, and I just said it for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n For those reasons, and for Ortiz\u2019s extensive charitable work, Boston University will award the retired designated hitter an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Commencement on Sunday, May 21.<\/p>\n In 2005, Ortiz founded the\u00a0David Ortiz Children\u2019s Fund<\/a>\u00a0to help children in New England and the Dominican Republic who lack access to pediatric services. The organization has raised more than $2 million and is credited with saving many children\u2019s lives in the island nation. Ortiz will be\u00a0roasted<\/a>\u00a0by former teammate Dustin Pedroia, comedian Lenny Clarke, and others on June 22 at the House of Blues in Boston to raise money for the fund; tickets are now\u00a0on sale<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you asked me five years ago, did I think I was going to get a degree, I still would have told you no way, man. Now my kids ask about college, and I say, if I can get a doctorate, you can too.\u201d\u00a0\u2013David Ortiz<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fittingly, Ortiz\u2019s honorary degree will be awarded at\u00a0historic Nickerson Field<\/a>, once the home of the Boston Braves and the site where former Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth signed his last professional contract, with the Braves.<\/p>\n A college degree wasn\u2019t something that seemed possible when Ortiz was growing up. \u201cNo way, man. College wasn\u2019t even a thought when I was a kid. Growing up in the Dominican I just played baseball,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you asked me five years ago, did I think I was going to get a degree, I still would have told you no way, man. Now my kids ask about college, and I say, if I can get a doctorate, you can too.\u201d<\/p>\n Clutch hitting and big home runs quickly became Ortiz\u2019s trademarks after he joined the Red Sox in 2003. Few outsiders could appreciate the depths that Red Sox fans\u2019 hopes had sunk to on the night of October 17, 2004. The team was down three games to none in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, and it was do-or-die time. Then\u00a0game 4<\/a>\u00a0went to extra innings, and Ortiz blasted a two-run walk-off homer in the 12th to win. Darkened streets all across New England rang with cheers.<\/p>\n Just 24 hours later, again in extra innings, Ortiz hit a walk-off single that gave game 5 to the Sox. The Red Sox went on to win games six and seven at Yankee Stadium, stunning New York four games to three. After that, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series seemed almost anticlimactic. It was Ortiz who turned everything around.<\/p>\n Ortiz says the moment he realized he was truly a Bostonian was the previous year, after the Red Sox catastrophic loss to the Yankees in game 7 of the ALCS. \u201cWhen New York was chanting, \u2018Boston sucks,\u2019 that was when\u00a0I knew I had to come back and win, and I knew I had to do it with Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n He came up big for the Red Sox over and over from 2003 to 2016, becoming the greatest designated hitter in major league history, with 541 home runs (17th all time) and 1,768 runs batted in (22nd). He is a 10-time All-Star and the owner of 3 World Series rings, from the Sox wins in 2004, 2007, and 2013. What many fans will remember most are his\u00a020 walk-off hits<\/a>\u00a0for the Sox\u201417 in the regular season, 3 in the playoffs, and 12 of them homers. (He also had three walk-offs for the Minnesota Twins before coming to Boston.)<\/p>\n What advice would he give to students who want to come up big in the clutch? What\u2019s the secret of succeeding when the stakes are highest? \u201cYou can\u2019t let people get in your head,\u201d Ortiz says. \u201cLook at me\u2014everyone told me Boston was cursed, but Boston was one of the best things that ever happened to me. You gotta just keep your head down, stick with people you trust and your family, and keep going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortiz became an American citizen in 2008, and he and his wife, Tiffany, now divide their time between the Dominican Republican and the United States. To the disappointment of many Sox fans, there is no sign that he will come out of retirement.<\/p>\n Fans can learn much more about David Ortiz in his recently published memoir,\u00a0Papi: My Story<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), written with Michael Holley. The Red Sox will officially retire his number, 34, in a ceremony at Fenway Park on June 23, making Ortiz just the 11th Red Sox player to receive that honor.<\/p>\n Find more information about Commencement on the\u00a0Commencement website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n