And now I want to invite all of you to my island, the Dominican Republic, for our beautiful beaches when you’re freezing up here!” “You’ve treated my family and all of us the right way. “You’ve opened your doors to us,” he said. ‘Big Papi’ didn’t disappoint when his turn to speak to the crowd came, he leaned into the microphone and shouted, “COOPERSTOWN!” The crowd roared back in approval. According to an approximate head count on Sunday’s Induction from The National Baseball Hall of Fame, 35,000 people were in Cooperstown for the three-hour ceremony that celebrated Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva and David Ortiz. Sunday start approached, groups throughout the crowd waved their Dominican flags and kept a high-energy excitement alive despite crushing heat and humidity. Fans had begun setting their tents, chairs, and blankets to reserve their spaces as early as the prior Thursday as the 1:30 p.m. Ortiz - along with Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Minnie Miñoso, and Buck O’Neil joined the 333 baseball immortals already enshrined. Dominican pride was well on display the next afternoon, July 24, when more than 30,000 fans poured onto the Clark Sports Center field to watch as Mr. Ortiz’s ride - the last in the hour-long parade - came into view - their jubilant cheers said it all about the weekend.Īnd what a weekend it was. They staked their position on the corner of Main and Chestnut the moment Mr. He and his family and friends - some dressed in Boston Red Sox garb like thousands of others lining Main, Chestnut, and Lake streets for the July 23 parade featuring some four dozen Hall of Famers - traveled to Cooperstown from the Dominican Republic to cheer on their hero. “We’re all ‘Big Papi’ this weekend, my friend!” one gentleman told me when I asked his name. It’s not every day that Cooperstown finds itself festooned with flags from the Dominican Republic, but on the weekend when the National Baseball Hall of Fame welcomed the island nation’s own David “Big Papi” Ortiz into its exclusive ranks, there was no mistaking the party atmosphere pervading the village. Special to The Freeman’s Journal/Hometown Oneonta

Our new Dominican friends grabbed prime real estate at the corner of Main and Chestnut streets on Saturday, July 23, when the Village of Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame hosted an hour-long parade featuring some four-dozen Hall of Famers - and when Big Papi came into their view, their cheers could be heard from blocks away. With Joyous Weekend By Ted Potrikus This joyful bunch brought their patriotic pride all the way to Cooperstown from the Dominican Republic to cheer on their fellow countryman, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, on the weekend he and six others were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

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