- David Ortiz played 14 seasons for the Boston Red Sox, and was known as a "Yankees killer."
- But Ortiz's father was a Yankees fan and got him a bat signed by former Yankee Don Mattingly.
- Ortiz even helped Yankees rival Alex Rodriguez breathe during games when he was stressed.
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Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz holds a dark place in the hearts of New York Yankees fans, but the Yankees hold a brighter place in the hearts of him and his family.
Ortiz played 14 seasons in Boston, leading the organization to three World Series titles from 2004-13, and built a reputation as a "Yankee killer" with several memorable hits against New York in big moments. But before that, he was a kid in the Dominican Republic, raised by his father Americo Enrique Ortiz – a loyal Yankees fan.
Ortiz opened up about his family's Yankees background during an interview with former Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez on Rodriguez's Youtube channel.
"My father was a big Yankee fan," Ortiz said. "Every Dominican was a Yankee fan back then, to be honest with you."
Not only did Ortiz's father have a fandom for the Yankees, but he even had a connection to former Yankees first baseman and current Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly through a mutual friend.
A friend of Ortiz's father's owned a restaurant in New York that Mattingly would frequent. That connection yielded Ortiz his first piece of baseball memorabilia: a game-used bat signed by Mattingly himself.
"Don Mattingly was one of his favorite players, and my dad told his friend, 'hey, when he goes back to the restaurant can you ask him to sign me something,'" Ortiz said. "Mattingly was like, 'next time I come back, I'll bring something for him.' He brought a bat that he went 3-for-4 with, autographed it, sent it to my dad, his friend brought it to the Dominican, and that was my very first memorabilia, that baseball bat."
Ortiz said he's mentioned that story to Mattingly in a more recent conversation and claims that Mattingly remembers giving the bat to the restaurant owner.
But his father's love for the Yankees and the gift from Mattingly didn't stop Ortiz from inflicting constant damage against the Yankees during his Red Sox career. Ortiz hit 53 career home runs against the Yankees along with 171 RBIs and 149 runs scored.
In the 2004 American League Championship Series, Ortiz had two walk-off hits in Games 4 & 5 against the Yankees, which sparked Boston's historic comeback to win the series after falling behind three games to none en-route to the Red Sox's first World Series title since 1918.
Still, Ortiz has shown a personal fondness for Yankees fans and players, including Rodriguez.
During the interview, Ortiz reminded Rodriguez of the occasions when the two met at third base during games between the Yankees and Red Sox, and Ortiz would help Rodriguez relieve stress with breathing exercises.
"I remember when we had those battles during our rivalry, and I would see you stressing out at third base, and I used to go like this: 'breathe bro, breathe,'" Ortiz said. "I hate to see, especially my boys, struggle or stressing out for things."
Before Ortiz's retirement after the end of the 2016 season, he expressed a desire to hear Yankees fans cheer for him during Boston's last trip to Yankee Stadium that year, according to The New York Post.
"You know what I want most of all?'' Ortiz said. "I would love it if the fans at Yankee Stadium gave me a standing ovation.''
Ortiz even penned a heartfelt letter to Yankees fans that year in The Player's Tribune, expressing his family and community's love for New York and the Yankees when he was growing up in The Dominican Republic.
"We looked at New York City like the American dream," Ortiz wrote. "The Yankees were like a symbol of everything. If you wore a Yankees hat, maybe your cousin or uncle sent it down to you from New York, and it was like that hat was a symbol of everything you were dreaming to be."