Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday. 

Ortiz, or “Big Papi,” as his teammates called him, was selected to the Hall of Fame his first time on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, the team announced. 

Ortiz won the World Series three times with the Red Sox, in 2004, 2007 and 2013, before retiring in 2016. 

He had 541 career home runs, 483 of them with the Red Sox, the second-most of any Boston player.

“I am truly honored and blessed by my selection to the Hall of Fame — the highest honor that any baseball player can reach in their lifetime,” Ortiz said, according to ESPN. “I am grateful to the baseball writers who considered my career in its totality, not just on the statistics.”

“For a young boy from Santo Domingo, I always dreamed of playing professional baseball,” Ortiz added. “Thanks to the encouragement of my father, Leo, and my mother, Angela Rosa, I knew from my earliest days at Estudia Espaillat High School in the Dominican Republic that I had the opportunity to pursue my dream of playing in the big leagues.”

Ortiz made headlines throughout his career and in his retirement when he said he would not visit former President Trump if he was still on the team after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2018. 

His induction ceremony to the Hall of Fame will be on July 24, in Cooperstown, N.Y.