And that request helped save the life of 12-year-old Diana Reyes, who was born with a hole in her heart.
Dr. Fred Madera, a surgeon with the Heart Care Dominicana Foundation, which was established to aid indigent children with congenital heart disease, will never forget Big Papi's visit.
"He showed up [at the Hospital General de la Plaza de Salud in Santo Domingo]," Madera said. "He saw kids with purple lips and purple nails, because of a lack of oxygen. He started talking to the parents. 'Hey, you like baseball?' They said, 'Yeah, but my kid has never been able to play. He's gasping for air.'
"Then [Ortiz's] eyes got watery. This huge guy was very touched."
Ortiz saw a dozen kids that day. One wore a Red Sox cap and said his dream was to play baseball, but he couldn't.
"Ortiz noticed he was big," said Madera. "He said, 'That could be me.' He kind of wiped his tears -- he cried. I thought, 'Hmmm . This big guy, I didn't know he had tears.' He said, 'Well, you're gonna play baseball,' and he signed a baseball."
Ortiz also saw a child who had just come out of surgery.
"He learned how one child's illness affected the whole family," said Nelvea Pelaez, executive director of Heart Care Dominicana. "The social impact is more than fixing a hole in the heart of one kid.
"We had to take him out. He had this look on this face -- not looking at anybody, just gazing at the horizon. All he said was, 'I have to do something about this. I'll be back.' "
Less than a year later, Ortiz kept his promise and returned with a check for $200,000, enough to start the first pediatric cardiovascular unit in the Dominican Republic.
"When I saw David go into the intensive care unit, I didn't see a big star going in there," said Pelaez. "I saw someone letting their real feelings come through. When you see that, you say, 'Oh my God, this is an original -- not like a politician or a movie star.' "
Ortiz isn't embarrassed to acknowledge that he cried.
"Yeah, I get a little bit sad about it," he said. "It hurt my feelings. When you see a child that needs help and you know if you make a move, you can make it happen . . .
"I went back to the States and started working [on raising money].
