Ortiz on an openly gay baseball player: 'It's the [expletive] 21st century. Get over it'

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Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz believes baseball is ready for an openly gay player, writes the Boston Herald's Steve Buckley. Ortiz would personally have no issues with a gay teammate because his momma raised him right. 

"[My mother] taught me to love people for who they are," Ortiz said. "That’s what she told me."

Ortiz was asked about having a gay teammate after the NBA's Jason Collins became the first active, openly gay player in the big-four professional sports leagues when he suited up for the Brooklyn Nets last Sunday.

Ortiz applauded Collins for staying true to himself:

I’m pretty sure his opening up to the public and saying what he said, that (earned) him trust. And just being himself, feeling comfortable with the real person that he is, has to help him. I think as a human, as a person, we need to accept people for the way they are. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what color you are, or coming out and what he said. I’m fine with that.

I’m nobody to judge anyone.

Ortiz, as Buckley points out, was speaking for himself, and not for the Red Sox, or his teammates. But when Ortiz speaks, people listen. He's one of the most popular and most respected players in the game. 

He's also one of the best quotes. 

"It's not something you choose to be. It's something you're born with and everybody needs to accept that," Ortiz said. "Hey, look, the way I see things, I love people the way they are."

"It's the [expletive] 21st century man. Get over it."