JACKSON, Tenn. — Oct. 23, 2018 — Luis Ortiz didn鈥檛 even get preferential treatment in the classroom from his 51社区 baseball coach.
Ortiz, who played baseball at Union from 1988-1991 and is appearing in this year鈥檚 World Series as assistant hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, had a freshman class with Andy Rushing where he finished with a 94.25 percent 鈥� a 鈥淏鈥� under Union鈥檚 grading scale.
鈥淗e didn鈥檛 want to round it up,鈥� Ortiz recalled. 鈥淗e said, 鈥業f I round it up for you, I鈥檓 going to have to round it up for everybody else.鈥欌��
鈥淗e hasn鈥檛 gotten over it yet, has he?鈥� said Rushing, who coached Ortiz for three years at Union. 鈥淭he idea was, I was going to teach him that nothing was going to be given. He had to earn it all.鈥�
That鈥檚 just one of the memories Ortiz carries with him from his time at Union, a place for which he will forever be grateful for the opportunities and the spiritual nourishment it provided. He said Union took care of him, gave him confidence and allowed him to grow.
鈥淚 know I鈥檝e been treated a lot differently than a typical Dominican just because of the education that I had,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淚 accomplished a lot of the things that I鈥檓 the first Dominican to have accomplished, just because of the education, and the high level education.鈥�
So how does an 18-year-old baseball player from the Dominican Republic end up playing baseball in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1988?
鈥淚 tell people that I basically ordered him out of a catalog,鈥� Rushing said.
Rushing went through the Latin Athlete Education Foundation and asked for a middle infielder who could lead off. Rushing鈥檚 contact at the organization gave him the names of four players and the names of professional scouts who had seen all four of them play. Rushing called the scouts and got an evaluation of all four players.
鈥淓very scout said the same thing: 鈥楴ow this Ortiz kid, he could lead off, but he鈥檚 got a little pop in his bat, too,鈥欌�� Rushing recalled.
鈥淎 little pop鈥� was an understatement, as Ortiz mashed 58 home runs in three years at Union and became the all-time NAIA leader in career slugging percentage (.911), a mark that still stands.
The first time Rushing ever saw Ortiz was when he met him at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Jackson to pick him up and bring him to campus for his freshman year. He had arrived from the Dominican Republic on a one-way ticket that his parents had saved for two years to afford.
鈥淗e just had that personality,鈥� Rushing said. 鈥淗e鈥檇 been here about three days, and I think he was the most popular guy on campus.鈥�
In addition to the education in the classroom, Union influenced Ortiz鈥檚 life in other ways. He met his wife Susan at Union (they have four daughters), and after growing up in a predominantly Catholic environment, he encountered a vibrant Christian atmosphere at Union that contributed greatly to his growth as a follower of Christ.
The transformation wasn鈥檛 instant and was more gradual, but it was lasting.
鈥淢y wife helped me with that, and my friends and Union, and examples of some of the godly men who I was exposed to there,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淎nd since then I try to live it every day.鈥�
The Ortizes have been members of Colleyville Presbyterian Church in Colleyville, Texas, for almost 25 years.
In 1993, Ortiz became the first Union baseball player ever to reach the Major Leagues when he made his debut with the Boston Red Sox after the team had drafted him in 1991 as a college junior.
Rushing had just started teaching a class at 8 a.m. when his administrative assistant came in and told him that Ortiz had been promoted and would be playing in Boston that night.
鈥淐lass dismissed,鈥� Rushing said.
He raced home, called a travel agent to arrange a flight from Nashville to Boston and arrived in time for the game.
Ortiz had advanced quickly through the Boston farm system, but his big league career never gained momentum. He played in 16 games for Boston in 1993 and 1994 before moving to the Rangers for the next couple of seasons and then bouncing around in the minors and in Japan for the rest of his playing career.
鈥淚t was such a difficult time to play because there were so many guys doing it the wrong way,鈥� Ortiz said, referencing the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs. 鈥淎nd you're competing in an environment that wasn't fair. But I also grew up with a mom who always said life is not fair, and you鈥檝e got to make the best of it.鈥�
Ortiz sometimes felt like he was fighting in a war with an arm tied behind his back while his opponent had a machine gun. Avoiding steroids for Ortiz wasn鈥檛 a medical issue but a moral one. Though the temptations were always present, and though it would have been easy for him to succumb, he refused.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to let God down, and I didn鈥檛 want to let my mom down,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat journey made me become who I am today, and I truly appreciate that.鈥�
While his convictions may have left him at a physical disadvantage, Ortiz decided to try to gain the upper hand intellectually. He began reading and studying the game of baseball, asking the right questions and outworking others when it came to learning about the sport. After his playing career, he ended up writing four books about hitting and opening a baseball school in Texas.
Eventually, Ortiz got into coaching at the Major League level, in various capacities with the Rangers, Indians and Padres, before the Dodgers hired him last December. But that came after he returned to Union in 2003 and 2004 to finish his degree, becoming the first Major League player from the Dominican Republic to graduate from college.
鈥淚 was trying to build that bridge between my professional baseball career and my career after baseball,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淎nd also, it was a gift for my mom who wanted me to graduate. It was really difficult for her and my dad to graduate, just because of where they're from and how poor they were, so that was for her.
鈥淚t's more of a proud moment to me that I had graduated than played in the big leagues.鈥�
His big league debut came at Fenway Park in Boston. Tonight, 25 years later, when he steps onto the same field in a Dodgers uniform, Ortiz will finally realize his childhood dream of making it to the World Series.
鈥淵ou play professionally, and you think you're going to play in the big leagues and then eventually you're going to go to the World Series,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淎nd 25 years later, this is the first time that really, really happens.鈥�