Sophia Michaels
Noted Red Sox fan and paper salesman John Krasinski isn’t having the best spring, as his baseball team isn’t playing and his movie, A Quiet Place Part II, is delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The early returns on the movie were quite good, so even if he’s not happy about the Sox trading Mookie Betts he’ll still have something to look forward to later this year.
He’s also doing his part to honor medical workers and their heroic efforts to help patients suffering COVID-19 battle the virus. Krasinski started Some Good News during the pandemic, a show that highlights good things happening despite all of the bad things happening. In the third episode of the show, which you can view above, Krasinski spoke to the COVID-19 unit at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He then virtually introduced them to someone who needs no introduction in Boston: David Ortiz.
Krasinski wanted to bring baseball to the staff, and he did it in a big way with the help of Big Papi. The retired Red Sox star, hilariously wearing a Red Sox jersey, spoke fondly of the staff and praised their work during a health crisis.
“I gotta tell you guys from the very bottom of my heart how much I love and respect you guys for what you are doing,” Ortiz said. He then announced that the staff at Beth Israel Deaconess would get four Red Sox tickets for life to games at Fenway Park, for the hospital to use as they see fit. Krasinski said he’s waited 16 years for season tickets and hasn’t heard back, so he’s admittedly a little jealous.
The episode also featured a special surprise for just the COVID-19 unit, which got a socially distant Duck Boat Tour of Boston and got a special look at Fenway Park. Krasinski called it “the most sanitized Duck Boat in America,” so it’s nice that they were keeping everyone safe. The video features some excellent Boston accents, as well as a bit of mask-wearing levity, which was nice. There was a nice moment of applause from Boston’s mayor, the governor of Massachusetts, and even a number of players on the Red Sox themselves. The workers even got to throw out the “first pitch” of the baseball season, which hasn’t officially started due to COVID-19.
Ortiz also has a special tie to the city, as he played most of his career with the Red Sox and also recovered at a Boston hospital — Mass General — following his gunshot wound suffered last year. And in a world without sports, it was a nice gesture by everyone involved to give some very important medical workers the star treatment amid a terrible situation.
Written by: Uproxx
