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BOSTON -- The Fenway Park video screen had just finished its tribute video for the Marathon bombing victims, the crowd had just finished singing the national anthem, and everyone involved with the pregame ceremonies on Saturday began to exit the field.
Except David Ortiz.
On the day he was making his triumphant return from the 15-day disabled list, Ortiz grabbed the microphone.
"All right," he said. "All right, Boston."
The crowd erupted, but Ortiz had more.
"This jersey that we wear today," he said, "it doesn't say Red Sox. It says Boston. We want to thank you Mayor [Tom] Menino, Gov. [Deval] Patrick, the whole police department for the great job they did this past week.
"This is our f------ city and nobody is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong."
The fans laughed and roared as Ortiz walked toward the dugout and smacked the microphone into the hands of a club employee.
Baseball returned to Boston on Saturday afternoon.
"I think everyone is feeling something different," catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said before Saturday's game against the Royals. "A lot of anger. A lot of sadness. It's just going to be one of those things where it's going to hit us but we're going to come together and pull through it."
A little after 1 p.m. ET, the video scoreboard at Fenway displayed a tribute to the Boston Marathon victims. With the song, "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley playing over the loudspeaker, the video scoreboard scrolled through photos of happy Marathon runners at first. Cheers erupted.
Then came the photos everyone has seen all too much of over the last week, with the image of the first explosion coming first, then the instantly-famous shot, featured on the front of Sports Illustrated this week, of three Boston Police officers standing in front of the chaos as a man lay on the ground.
After a display of the Watertown sign caused another eruption in cheer, photos from Friday's manhunt and eventual capture of the second bombing suspect wrapped up the video tribute.
Victims of Monday's bombing were brought on the field to throw ceremonial first pitches alongside members of the Boston Police and Watertown Police departments, Patrick and police commissioner Ed Davis.
A Green Monster-sized American flag fell from the left-field wall and the national anthem was sung by the crowd.
Finally, it was time for baseball.
"That's what we're here for," Saltalamacchia said. "It makes it all better just being able to go to a hospital and talk to kids when they're sick, talk to people when they're sick, and just for that minute they can forget about what they're going through and be happy.
"That's what we're here for. It's our duty just like everyone else's to come together."
About 10 players made it to Fenway Park on Friday afternoon, with the city on lockdown and a suspect still at large after killing a police officer Thursday night.
Before Friday night's game was postponed, the players huddled together around televisions, just like everybody else. They worried, just like everybody else.
"It was weird to look out the window and not see any cars, see any people. It was like a ghost town," said third baseman Will Middlebrooks. "It was pretty scary to know it was just a couple miles away. I'm glad it's over."
Outfielder Shane Victorino said he was touched when he saw the "We Stand United" sign at Yankee Stadium, with the Red Sox logo and Yankees logo side by side.
Kansas City pitcher Wade Davis gave a reminder that Red Sox fans come to the park and "let you know they're Boston fans." But the Royals didn't seem to care about that on Saturday.
"I think this is good for the fans, now that this is all over, that they're going to be able to get out and enjoy themselves and not really have to worry about it," said Kansas City reliever Tim Collins, who is from Worcester, Mass.
Even the players had to get their cars searched Saturday. The security all around Fenway Park was noticeably tight. There were Army vehicles near Kenmore Station and uniformed soldiers positioned outside the park, with metal detectors at all the entrances.
"Who hasn't got a speeding ticket and hated a police officer for a couple minutes?" said outfielder Jonny Gomes said. "But with that being said, they're here for the right reasons and they definitely showed it the last couple days. I think they should all be honored with the utmost respect."
The Red Sox said a win or a loss hardly seemed to matter for Saturday's game. The way Boston has been able to pick up the pieces after a tragedy-filled week will surely last beyond the emotional pregame ceremonies.
Late in the season, if there's a playoff run, this feeling will chase them.
"I think it was so awesome to see the people partying in the streets last night," Gomes said. "You would think one of these teams up here won a championship. I guess you can argue the police officers, they did. That is like the World Series or Super Bowl to accomplish what they accomplished. No other civilians got hurt, and when you talk about how dangerous those people were, we definitely have to treat them like champs."
News Source: www.mlb.com
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