David Ortiz, aka ‘Big Papi,’ steps up to the stage as homecoming showcase speaker
December 7, 2025
Northeastern students donned their Tuesday best to Blackman Auditorium Nov. 4: Red Sox jerseys, hats and jackets. After all, David Ortiz was on Northeastern’s campus, cementing another moment of baseball history on Huntington Avenue.
Ortiz, a first ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, visited Northeastern as part of the Council of University Programs, or CUP, and Resident Student Association’s, or RSA, homecoming showcase event. RSA and CUP hosted Ortiz for a Q&A, with third-year marine biology major Anna Eaton as the moderator. Big Papi charismatically grasped the audience’s attention with his answers and filled Blackman with laughs and insight on what it takes to be a Major League Baseball legend.
Ortiz’s MLB career was nothing short of spectacular. He was a 10-time All-Star, seven-time Silver Slugger, and the list goes on. He also led the Red Sox to their first World Series win in 86 years in 2004, as well as in 2007, 2013 and 2018.
Ortiz began by discussing what Boston means to him after spending 14 seasons in the city as a player; he also travels back and forth to work with the team in his current position in the Red Sox front office as a special assistant to the Fenway Sports Group. Ortiz recalled loving the North End Italian restaurants and the summers, but the cold was the reason he relocated.
Before Ortiz’s time in Boston, he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners before joining the Minnesota Twins. When he was with the Twins, Ortiz went through all three levels of minor league baseball, and in his own words, “destroyed.”