In the Eye of the Beholder

Posted by Mike Giardi July 13, 2008 at 9:38 pm

In honor of the Red Sox being in first-place at the A.L. East here at the All-Star break, I thought I’d run down the list of my favorite Sox players, from 30 some-odd years of watching these guys play. Without any delay, here’s what I got.

Fred Lynn - Built for Fenway. My favorite part of the Gold Dust Twins, although turns out Rice was the one who should be in the Hall, not Freddie. The man threw his body around the outfielder and had one of the great regular season performances in Sox history, with 3 HRs and 10 RBI against the Tigers. He had 39 dingers and 122 RBI back in 1979, before steroids dominated baseball. Those numbers were incredibly impressive then. How about now, knowing what we know? Once he left Boston, Lynn was good, but never reached the potential we thought he’d reach here.

Mo Vaughn - Oh sure, he had a thing for strip clubs. Hey, they treated him well and he could also get steak and eggs. And who doesn’t like steak and eggs? Actually, I’m pretty sure I’ve never had steak and eggs, but I like steak, and I like eggs; fried, scrambled, although not poached. Poached eggs are nasty, unless maybe its on Eggs Benedict, which reminds me, its probably been 10 years since I’ve had Eggs Benedict. Gotta put that on my things to do list. As for Mo, big power and an almost larger-than-life persona. Another guy who didn’t do jack once he left, but when he was here, I loved him.

Dwight Evans - His batting stance is what drew me to him. Always changing, but usually consisting of some sort of toe-tapping for timing mechanism. I may have duplicated that in Little League and Babe Ruth. Fortunately, there’s no visual proof. Lucky for me. Evans was a graceful rightfielder (8 Gold Gloves) with an arm that no one in baseball seems to possess anymore. Turns out he may have been a bit of a pain in the clubhouse, if what Cal Ripken and others will tell you, but I didn’t know that then.

Dustin Pedroia - Yes, its taken just a year-and-a-half for me to put in my top-10. Can he stay there? Why not? The kid is an unbelievable gamer, more talented than anyone gave/gives him credit for. Dusty consistently gives as good an at bat as anyone on this team, and that’s saying something when you look at the lineup and see Manny, Youk, David and J.D. I look forward to seeing him scrap for another half-dozen years. I really do.

Pedro Martinez - Quite simply, my favorite Sox pitcher. Maybe my favorite pitcher ever. What he did those first few seasons in Boston may never be matched! Never! When he was feeling good, as he often was during those seasons, he couldn’t get rid of the ball fast enough. Throw a nasty pitch, make the hitter look stupid, then repeat. All of his starts were events (until the Sox priced some of his fans out of the park), and the energy in the ballpark is unlike any I’ve felt, at least during the regular season. Plus, he’s responsible for one of my favorite Sox clubhouse stories ever, when he sat in a chair watching us wait for his brother Ramon, who had just pitched a tremendous game against the Yankees. Said Petey, with that big grin on his face, “I told you my brother would do that. I told you he’d show you a thing or two.” His pride was palpable. It was a cool moment.

Nomar Garciaparra - For years, he was an absolute joy to watch. I remember sitting alongside Dan Shaughnessy one time on “Sports Late Night” and he just threw up his hands and said something to the effect of Nomar being the perfect player, the perfect Sox (yes, Dan was speaking positively). I thought he’d be one of those guys who’d become a legend, and part of the first World Series winner in 80-plus years here. Turns out his getting shipped out of town was the catalyst for a champion. Stunning in how quickly it turned for him. For some reason, he thought the media had it out for him and his team. Maybe some did, but the man was treated like a King by most, untouchable by others. His is, to me, one of the saddest tales of any I’ve covered. I hope it was worth it, and I hope he’s happy out in L.A.

Don Baylor - The mere fact that the man wouldn’t move and take a 95 MPH fastball off the arm, hip or leg told me all I needed to know about this guy. An absolute beast, and tremendous in RBI Baseball for Nintendo way back in the day.

David Ortiz - This is obvious, right? As clutch an athlete as I’ve ever encountered, even if he fails in big spots from here on out. What he’s done since the start of 2003 - heck, what he did in the 2004 playoffs against the Yankees - is almost fictional. Plus, the man’s hilarious. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

Greg Harris - He could throw lefty and righty? At the Major League level? Ridiculous. He transitioned from being a decent starter in Boston to a horse out of the pen. 70 appearances when he was 36, 80 when he was 37. When you pitch in essentially half your team’s games, you have my respect. Plus, he wore glasses and looked kinda dorky, which made his success even more improbable.

Spike Owen - Part of that ‘86 team, who came over in the trade with Dave Henderson if I remember correctly. He couldn’t hit, but he went to the University of Texas and he was bald at the age of 22, not that’s there’s anything wrong with that.