The Boston Red Sox cancelled Tuesday’s planned David Ortiz bobblehead giveaway after team officials deemed the collectible “racially insensitive.”
According to the Boston Globe, the bobblehead was meant to commemorate Big Papi’s post-Boston Bombing “this is our fucking city” speech, but team president Sean Kennedy thought it crossed the line.
We’re back home tomorrow night and we’re going big with the #BigPapi bobblehead! Get yours: https://t.co/uQuufP0I67 pic.twitter.com/Y5CzCEb5g8
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) August 8, 2016
A statement from the #RedSox regarding tonight’s David Ortiz bobblehead giveaway: pic.twitter.com/btKRFyvDIE
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) August 9, 2016
“It was an inaccurate portrayal of David. It doesn’t really look like David,” he explained. “No. 2, I personally thought it seemed to be an offensive portrayal of him and racially insensitive.”
“If I was feeling this way, certainly other people would. So we pulled the plug,” Kennedy added.
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Ortiz announced earlier this year that he will retire following the 2016 season.
The future Hall-of-Famer won three World Series with Boston and hold the club’s single season home run record (54).
He is the MLB’s all-time leader in home runs (472), RBIs (1,529) and hits (2,136) by a DH.