The David Ortiz farewell tour was filled with many memorable moments. Most of those happened during games, as the retiring superstar nearly slugged his way into the MVP award.

His final season was also filled with just as many awkward moments. Most of those actually came before games when teams presented him with going-away gifts.

Perhaps the most awkward ceremony took place in Baltimore. Prior to his final game at Camden Yards, on Sept. 21, the Orioles rolled out the red carpet, showed highlights of Ortiz mashing home runs against the mutual rival New York Yankees, and then presented him with the actual visitor’s dugout phone he once destroyed during an in-game meltdown.

???? You used to call me on my cell phone. ???? #IBackTheBirds pic.twitter.com/DYrwH3hFUl — Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) September 22, 2016





For real. That was the Orioles parting gift. Or souvenir, if you will.

As you can tell by the expressions of Ortiz and long-time friend Adam Jones, who was tasked with delivering the gift, Ortiz did not appreciate the gesture. Neither Ortiz nor Jones made any issue of it publicly at the time. However, Jones admitted during his appearance at the David Ortiz Celebrity Classic golf event in the Dominican Republic that Ortiz was less than pleased, while adding he felt his team dropped the ball with their gift idea.

“I didn’t really like that either,” Jones admitted to the gathered media on Friday. “I think we could have done a little bit more. When I got to him he had choice words.”

Jones added that he thought Ortiz might actually walk off the field when he handed the phone over. That didn’t happen. Perhaps if Ortiz had brought his bat with him to the field though he would have finished that phone off once and for all.

Now that would have been a fitting ending.

Knowing what we know now, Ortiz probably would have been better served taking his father’s advice and holding off on his retirement announcement until after the season. As the season went along, he seemed to become more and more uncomfortable as team after team held these pregame presentations. It was fun at times. There were definitely good moments too as his charities received generous donations in his name. Too often though, it just felt weird.

By the time Boston left Baltimore though, it was completely off the rails.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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