David Ortiz Didn’t Know He Was on Boston 2024’s Board of Directors
Photo via AP
In the twilight of the doomed bid to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Massachusetts, there seemed to be a routine of Boston 2024 organizers proudly announcing a new development, a reporter making a few calls and discovering that one or more involved parties had zero knowledge of said development, and, when asked about it, Boston 2024 organizers reiterating their myopic push toward what’s next, not what’s past.
Buried deep in Boston Globe Red Sox columnist Peter Abraham’s cleaning-out-the-desk-drawer piece today is an anecdote about three-time World Series champion and should-be Hall-of-Famer David Ortiz, who served on Boston 2024’s Board of Directors.
Except, no one told Papi:
Now it can be told: Back in April, the committee to bring the Olympics to Boston in 2024 announced with great fanfare that Ortiz had volunteered to join their board of directors.
The Red Sox were in Baltimore at the time and I went over to Ortiz to ask him about the news.
“What are you talking about?” he said. “They want the Olympics in Boston?”
Ortiz was put on the committee but somebody forgot to tell him, either his agents or the Boston 2024 people.
Ortiz appeared on a draft list of the bid’s Executive Committee in a March 9 email, obtained by No Boston 2024’s Jonathan Cohn and provided to Boston magazine.
Ortiz later appeared in a Hill Holiday-produced promotional video for Boston 2024, presumably after he was informed he was a part of it.
Of course, the question of why Abraham sat on this important detail is especially pertinent. Responding to folks on Twitter, Abraham had this to say:
@reillyadam @jfleming2870 prominent players get asked to do civic-type things all the time via third parties. at the time, minor thing.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 18, 2015
@jfleming2870 @reillyadam happened to remember it the other day because we back in baltimore. no vast conspiracy. sorry. cheers.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/PeteAbe/status/644902284900585476
Regardless of intent, the Globe covered the release of Boston 2024’s promo after the bid’s public relations team pitched it to reporters on the Olympics beat, yet sat on a report that Ortiz, one of it’s highest-profile advocates was roped into this smoldering wreck entirely unbeknownst to him.
Seems like that’d be worth a mention, perhaps even above-the-fold.
