Touching tribute: Brock Holt tips cap to empty Fenway Park after music video tribute

When a player is honored in one of baseball’s cathedrals, he takes a bow, even if there are no fans.

Brock Holt is revered in Boston, and if he didn’t know that already, there was nothing left to guess after Sunday’s 9-5 Red Sox victory over the Washington Nationals. The Red Sox paid tribute to him after the third inning on the video board at Fenway Park. The video paid tribute to Holt’s seven seasons in Boston, especially his memorable Game 3 of the 2018 NLDS against the Yankees, when he went 4-for-6 and became the first major leaguer to hit for the cycle in a postseason game. The Sox went on to win the World Series.

“This is a special place for me, so to just kind of be here right now is pretty cool,” Holt said in a pre-game video chat with reporters.

The video also highlighted Holt’s work in the community, especially with juvenile patients at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and his contributions to the institute’s Jimmy Fund. Country music played over Holt’s on-field highlights and photos of him with children.

As the video played in Fenway Park, the audio system piped up the cheers to an audible ovation, and Holt emerged from the stands by the Nats’ dugout, waved to the invisible fans, doffed his cap and took a bow.

A Boston resident since he arrived in the majors in 2013, Holt says he and his growing family still plan to call the Boston area home.

“Me and my wife fell in love with the city and got involved in some organizations and stuff that meant a lot to us,” he said. “My wife is pregnant. She’s about to have a baby, so she didn’t really want to leave this year.”