The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees may be mortal enemies, but there is also a mutual respect in the rivalry shines through on occasion. With David Ortiz stepping into retirement, we are seeing that glimmer of respect, as Ortiz thanked Yankees fans and showed a sense of humor at the same time.

Ortiz wrote a good-bye letter to the Yankees and their fans on The Players’ Tribune as he and the Red Sox prepare to play their final game sin Yankee Stadium this season (barring any shocking playoff matchup that could pop up). Ortiz has had his battle sin the Bronx over the years as the Red Sox and Yankees battled for AL East and World Series superiority over his career. Ortiz has liekly been on the end of an onslaught of insults from Yankee fans over the years, but Big Papi takes it all in stride and understands it comes with the territory. Ortiz shared a respect for the dedicated Yankee fans and almost encouraged them to follow through on a rumored mass-mooning.

Then he shows me an article on his phone about some guy who’s trying to get everybody in Yankee Stadium to moon me.

This dude even made a whole website: moonbigpapi.com.

Bro.

Bro.

Come on.

Let me tell you something. If 50,000 people moon me, I promise you two things.

First, I’m gonna laugh so hard I might start crying.

Then when the tears dry, I’m gonna step up to the plate and try to hit the ball all the way to the choo choo train. You gotta be careful. You guys don’t have Mariano no more, you know what I’m saying?

Listen, Yankee fans. I gotta admit something to you. And I’m serious about this. I got love for you.

It’s just a little bit of love, but I do.

Ahh, rivalry. It’s a beautiful thing.

The thing is, there has been a push by some Yankee fans to do just that. It’ll never happen, although you can probably imagine there will be at least one Yankee fan dropping his pants and showing Ortiz his full moon.

As Ortiz noted:

Some players are born to be Yankees, you know what I’m saying?

I was born to play against the Yankees.

Will there be any Yankee fans born to moon Ortiz? We’ll find out.

[The Players’ Tribune]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.