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All-Century Roster: Red Sox
By Gary Brooks
SportsLine Baseball Editor
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Though Fenway's faithful have been witness to numerous personal triumphs
and several outstanding teams, the prevailing theme of the century is that
the Red Sox are cursed. Not since 1918, when Babe Ruth had yet to turn the
game upside down with his slugging prowess but had become a dominant lefty
on the mound leading the Red Sox to their fifth World Series championship,
has Boston been the season's final victor.
 | | | Carlton Fisk forced a Game 7 in 1975 with a dramatic homer over the Green Monster.(Allsport) | |
Four times the Red Sox have made for great drama in taking World Series
to Game 7 and each time -- 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986 -- they've lost to extend the
"Curse of the Bambino." Not since Ruth was sold to the Yankees have the Red
Sox won the Series. It's an easy mark in time to turn into a slogan but
really it's just a well-chronicled excuse for falling a game short of
greatness.
Individual greatness has showered Boston with a long list of awesome
feats. The last Triple Crown winner, the last .400 hitter, the last AL
hitter with 400 total bases, 192 of Cy Young's 511 wins, two of the three
20-strikeout games in history, 10 MVPs, 25 Hall of Famers, three members of
the 3,000-hit club, six 400-home run hitters.
The Red Sox have the history to qualify as one of the few greatest teams
of the century. But the World Series tortures have kept them from
approaching the New York Yankees in truly elite status.
Lineup
| Carlton Fisk, Catcher, 1969, '71-80 |
| Fisk provided much more than the most defining image of Red Sox history for
the TV generation. He represented the Red Sox in the All-Star Game seven
times. In 1972, he hit .293 with 22 home runs, a league-leading nine
triples, won a Gold Glove, and became the first player ever to win the
Rookie of the
Year award unanimously. Injuries limited his performance a bit in the
mid-70s. But he went on to play more games and hit more home runs than any
catcher ever. His best season in Boston was 1977 when he hit .315 with 26
homers and 102 RBI. |
| Jimmie Foxx, 1B, 1936-42 |
| A great deal of Foxx's stardom came when he hit 302 homers as a
Philadelphia Athletic but he continued to pound the ball from seven more
years in Boston. He was selected to six All-Star games as a Red Sox. It's a
close call here over Mo Vaughn but Foxx, in one less year in Boston, has
better career numbers than Vaughn in all important categories -- average
(.320), on-base percentage (.429), slugging percentage (.605), RBI (788)
and runs (721). Vaughn hit 234 homers to Foxx's 222. |
| Bobby Doerr, 2B, 1937-44, 46-51 |
| On the same trip to sign Ted Williams, the Red Sox also signed another
hotshot teenager in Doerr. He turned into a nine-time All-Star and Hall of
Famer. Doerr is one of just four Red Sox (Williams, Yastrzemski, and Cronin
the others) who have had their numbers retired. He led the AL in fielding
four times, hit 223 homers and drove in 1,247 and in 1944 accomplished a
rare feat by a second baseman, leading the AL in slugging percentage
(.528). He had six 100-RBI seasons. |
| Joe Cronin, SS, 1935-45 |
| Cronin didn't join the Red Sox until his 10th season but he stayed for
another 10, six of which were outstanding and had him considered among the
best shortstops of his time. He was a five-time All-Star for Boston and
drove in 100 runs three times. At the same time, Cronin managed the Red Sox
from '35-'47, including the team's World Series season of 1946. He went on
to work in the front office and eventually become president of the American
League. He began his managerial career at 27 in 1933 with the Washington
Senators and was thusly nicknamed "boy wonder." |
| Wade Boggs, 3B, 1982-92 |
| Boggs led the Red Sox in hits nine consecutive seasons from 1983-91
including a club record 240 in 1985. The 240 hits remain the most in 69
years. His seven consecutive 200-hit seasons are the AL record. His .338
average is second best to Ted Williams' .344 in team history. |
| Ted Williams, OF, 1939-42, '46-60 |
| Williams' legacy will always be highlighted by the fact he is the last
person to hit .400, having gone 185 for 456 (.406) in 1941. If he hadn't
lost five seasons to military service he might be considered the greatest
player ever. His only full season in which he was not an All-Star was his
rookie year when he had 145 RBI. Williams hit .344 with 521 homers
and 1,839 RBI. His .483 career on-base percentage is the best ever and his
slugging percentage (.634) is second to Babe Ruth. |
| Tris Speaker, OF, 1907-15 |
| In the dead-ball era, Speaker was the best all-around player in the
American League from 1912-14. His stardom was based on defense, as the
finest center fielder before Willie Mays and maybe ever. He was known for
playing a shallow center, almost a fifth infielder since there weren't too
many long drives early in his career. He kept bloopers from being hits and
stole a lot that did get over his head. But he was a quality hitter also.
He hit .337 in his Red Sox years, topping out at .383 in 1912, a season in
which he led the league with 10 home runs. The "Grey Eagle" led the AL in
doubles a record eight times. He helped the Red Sox win the 1912 and 1915
World Series. |
| Carl Yastrzemski, OF, 1961-83 |
| Yaz left a basketball scholarship at Notre Dame to take a challenge that
was set up for failure. He stepped into the Red Sox lineup in 1961 in Ted
Williams' spot in left field knowing exactly how awesome he'd have to be to
continue providing Red Sox fans with Williams-like performances.
Yastrzemski remained in Boston 23 years, had some truly monumental seasons
and many others above the norm becoming a Red Sox legend. He's the only AL
player with 3,000 hits and 400 home runs. He's the last player to win the
Triple Crown, doing so in 1967 when he hit .326 with 44 home runs and 121
RBI. His '67 season keyed the Red Sox' "Impossible Dream" which ended in
the seventh game of the World Series. The Red Sox had another World
Series chance with Yaz in the middle of the lineup in 1975 but lost to the
Reds. |
| Jim Rice, DH, 1974-89 |
| Though he rarely received as much attention as other Red Sox stars, mostly
due to his silent personality, Rice is undoubtedly one of the best sluggers
in Fenway history. He's among the team's career top five in most offensive
categories and was an eight-time All-Star. Rice was the AL MVP in 1978 when
he led the majors with 46 homers, 139 RBI, 15 triples, 213 hits and 406
total bases. He is the only AL player to reach 400 total bases since 1937.
In 1979 he became the only player in history to have three consecutive
seasons of 35 homers and 200 hits. |
Pitchers
| Smokey Joe Wood, SP, 1908-15 |
| Wood is not in the Hall of Fame but there is no disputing that for a
portion of his career he had Hall of Fame stuff. In 218 games for the Red
Sox he had a club-record 1.99 ERA and went 117-56. He was the ace of the
1912 World Champions, going 34-5 during the regular season then winning
three World Series games, two complete games. He pitched a no-hitter in 1911. |
| Cy Young, SP, 1901-08 |
| In eight seasons with the Red Sox, Young pitched 275 complete games and
added 192 wins to his total that would finish at an unreachable 511. He had
six 20-win seasons for Boston, including 33 wins in '01 and 32 in '02. He
pitched a perfect game against the Athletics in 1904 and won two games to
help Boston win the first ever World Series in 1903. |
| Babe Ruth, SP, 1914-19 |
| Seven hundred and fourteen home runs easily overshadowed Babe Ruth the
pitcher. But if he'd remained a pitcher throughout his career, he might
have won 300 games or more. He went a terrific 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA with
the Red Sox. His ERA is fourth best in club history for those who pitched
over 1,000 innings. His winning percentage (.659) is second best in team
history and among the best ever for pitchers with 80 wins or more. In 1916
he went 23-12 leading the league in shutouts (9, AL lefty record) and ERA
(1.75). In 1917 he pitched 35 complete games going 24-13. In 1919, while
leading the league with 29 homers, 114 RBI and 103 runs, Ruth also won nine
games. In World Series appearances, he had a streak of 29 2/3 scoreless
innings. |
| Roger Clemens, SP, 1984-96 |
| Clemens staked his claim as the greatest right-hander of his era by winning
five Cy Young Awards. The first three came with Boston in 1986, '87 and
'91. He was also the AL MVP in '86 when he went 24-4. His 192 wins are tied
with Young for the team record, as are his 38 shutouts. "Rocket" twice
struck out 20 batters in a nine-inning game, doing it 10 years apart in
1986 and '96. He became perhaps the game's most intimidating pitcher. After
struggling with mediocre seasons in the mid-90s, he left Boston, but added
a split-fingered fastball and returned to his spot as the best right-handed
power pitcher in the game with Toronto. |
| Pedro Martinez, SP, 1998-99 |
| With apologies to Luis Tiant and Mel Parnell, Martinez couldn't be left out
of the Red Sox rotation even with only a two-season resume. After a 19-win
1998 season that helped the Sox reach the playoffs and had him finish
second to Clemens in Cy Young voting, Martinez put together one of the
greatest seasons in the past 30 years in 1999. He was a unanimous Cy Young
winner and surprisingly was edged for MVP after going 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA,
more than a run better than anyone else, and 313 strikeouts, a Red Sox
record. From 1997-99 he was arguably the toughest pitcher to hit in the
majors. The outstanding command of his fastball and a baffling changeup
turned him into a Fenway hero in the process of becoming a legend. |
| Dick Radatz, RP, 1962-66 |
| In an age when closers weren't used in the same role they are today, coming
in for longer appearances and fewer save opportunities, Radatz was among
the best relievers in the game. As a rookie in '62, "Monster" saved 25
games and won nine. The next season he went 15-6 with a 1.97 ERA and saved
25. He was the league's fireman of the year for the third consecutive
season in 1964 winning 16 games and saving 29. |
| Bench |
| Dwight Evans, Dom DiMaggio, Nomar Garciaparra, Harry Hooper, Mo
Vaughn, Rico Petrocelli, Vern Stephens, Fred Lynn, Jackie Jensen, Rick
Ferrell, Frank Malzone, Pete Runnels, Johnny Pesky, Tony Conigliaro, Jimmy
Collins. |
| Best season |
| As has become the theme of the century for this franchise,
their best team was one that came up a game short of expectation. The 1946
Red Sox won 104 games and were considerable favorites to beat the St. Louis
Cardinals in the World Series. As it turned out, they lost Game 7, 4-3, and
have gone on to lose in Game 7 three more times. Led by Ted Williams,
Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio, who all finished in the top 5 in batting,
the Red Sox led the majors in runs (792) and average (.271). The staff had
a 25-game winner in Dave Ferris and a 20-game winner in Tex Hughson but
couldn't put away the Stan Musial- and Enos Slaughter-led Cardinals. |
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| Worst season |
| There were many down years in Boston in the post-Ruth,
pre-Williams era. From 1920-36 there were 10 seasons of at least 90 losses.
The worst of them was 1932 when a season-low attendance of 182,150 watched
the Sox go 43-111. Boston finished 64 games behind the Yankees scoring 350
fewer runs than the Bronx Bombers. |
| Best individual season, player |
| Being the last person to hit .400, Ted
Williams' .406 in 1941 was 47 points higher than anyone else in the league.
Williams' on-base percentage was .561, the best ever, and his .735
slugging percentage, No. 10 in history. Williams led the league with 37
homers and 135 runs and was fourth with 120 RBI. |
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| Best individual season, pitcher |
| Smokey Joe Wood's 1912 season in which he
went 34-5 with a 1.91 ERA is unfathomable by today's standards and among
the top performances in history. He pitched 10 shutouts and was second to
Walter Johnson in ERA, strikeouts (258) and opponents batting average (.216). |
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