Of all of David Ortiz’s noteworthy Fenway Park moments, and of all of the times he surprised everybody watching, none was quite like what unfolded Monday afternoon. This time, he was surprised.
Ortiz’s 15-year-old daughter Alex sang the national anthem before the home opener, a portion of the pregame festivities unknown to the elder Ortiz until it happened. As he stood on the first base line, flanked by Hanley Ramirez and Xander Bogaerts, and glanced at home plate to see the middle of his three children standing with a microphone, his not-safe-for-work exclamation drew a laugh from Bogaerts.
Alex’s rendition was, if you will, clutch. She held “brave’’ at the end of the song for six seconds for a sold-out crowd of 37,160. Afterward, father and daughter embraced as two F-16 fighter jets flew overhead.
“I’m not going to lie to you: I was more nervous during that time than during any at-bat I’ve ever had in my career — and it wasn’t even about me,’’ David Ortiz said after the final home opener of his career. “If you ever have kids, you know how that goes, when you’re watching your kids perform. . . . Now I understand my dad, my family, my mom, when she used to watch me. I know they all used to be very nervous and stuff. Now I get it.’’
Added Alex: “He said to me, ‘Don’t ever surprise me like that again.’?’’
The production was at least weeks in the making, with a nervous but motivated Alex practicing at school and — with her father at spring training and opening the season on the road — at home.
The goal, she said, was to make Ortiz emotional.
“Somebody told me that he cried, and I was like, ‘Yes!’?’’ Alex said, smiling. “I didn’t know if that was a terrible thing.’’
The pregame ceremonies at Fenway were, as much of the season will be, Ortiz-centric. Alex’s national anthem was the highlight, but David also threw out a first pitch alongside three other Boston sports legends: Bill Russell, Bobby Orr, and Ty Law, with Law and Ortiz carefully helping the 82-year-old Russell onto the field. Ortiz joined another group of Boston greats — a 2000s Red Sox edition, with Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek, and Tim Wakefield — in announcing that it was time to “play ball.’’
Local dignitaries, including team executives and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, looked on from seats next to the Red Sox dugout. Ortiz and manager John Farrell received two of the largest pregame ovations, the latter for making his Fenway return after battling lymphoma late last season.
Oh, and there was a game, too, a 9-7 Sox loss to the Orioles. Ortiz went 2 for 5 with an RBI in front of an excitable bunch of fans.
They cheered when Ortiz singled to left to score Dustin Pedroia in the first, and again — prematurely this time — when he lofted a fly out to right in the third. They groaned on a called strike three, a slider noticeably outside the strike zone, in the fifth. They got loud with a double off the Monster in the seventh, and got on their feet with a this-is-really-happening buzz when Ortiz stepped to the plate as the would-be winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
Ortiz grounded into a double play.
“If he gets something in the air, there’s a chance he can use the wall, as he did the previous at-bat,’’ Farrell said of Ortiz’s matchup with Baltimore lefty Zach Britton, who attacked the DH low and away.
“Possibly the setup for a dramatic moment, in which he has risen to the occasion so many times. Unfortunately, [second baseman Jonathan] Schoop makes a heck of a play to begin the front end of the double play.’’
And so they’ll show up Tuesday and do it all again, minus much of the fanfare (but plus the 15,000 replica necklace’s commemorating Ortiz’s 500 home runs that will be given to fans).
“I know there’s been a lot of [retirement-related] things going on, but nothing really takes my focus away,’’ Ortiz said. “I’m going to continue trying to do what I do.’’
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @timbhealey.
