In fact, that season (1998) was his best in a Sox uniform. Highest wRC+ (151), highest WAR (6.3), 2nd-highest games played and PA. You're right, there was nothing to suggest an imminent, steep decline. Yet that's what happened. You have to give Duquette some credit for prescience there.Lester was the same age when he was traded as Vaughn was when he left.
And Vaughn was coming off a season where he had 40 HRs and was just a couple points off the league lead in BA, and had 3 consecutive seasons of >= 150 OPS+
I was at that game, that was sad, he just didn't look right in those WS uniforms. Also, I remember the smell of weed all along the 3B line, my older brother (bad influence on me, haha) and I may have added to that smell.This
and this.
I was a 11/12 when both of these happened and the "business of baseball" hadn't hardened me yet. For a few years my mother and my friend's mother used to take us to opening day and as luck would have it one of those years the scheduling gods were nice enough to have a Sox/Sox matchup to welcome back Fisk who then proceeded to hit a HR as part of a White Sox win.
That was a fun read!Here's Mookie's Adopt-A-Prospect page. Some bittersweet reading.
https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/mookie-betts.667/
I loved Stan Belinda, and for some reason he is the "true" #43 for me. Though obviously, it should be Eck.I am the only person in The world with a custom authentic Stan Belinda Sox jersey, so it made me sad to see him go. The 1995 season and run to the the playoffs to get destroyed by the Indians was exciting and a sidearm wannabe closer was part of it—until they acquired Rick Aguilera, thus devaluing my shirt. When Stan left the Red Sox a year later to sign with Cincinnati I was slightly devastated. Much like Mookie Betts, he was determined to test free agency despite how much I liked him as a player. He tested free agency a lot, like every year. Sad. And then he got multiple sclerosis. Even more sad.View attachment 28381
I did get to see all of the above players in piecemeal. Saw the Rooster and Fantastic Freddy in the Kingdome and they looked so alien in their Angel's uniform. Saw Yaz and Peskie as they were still with the Mike Torres Red Sox in Seattle. Saw Fisk in Alameda County Stadium in Oakland and he looked utterly ridiculous in his Chisox uni. From watching the games on WSBK TV-38 and seeing them in their Red Sox uniforms for hundreds upon hundreds of games, it was a real down feeling seeing them on other teams.I was baffled when we failed to tender Fisk on time, and in the span of about 5 seconds, three of our cornerstones - Cahlton, Roostah and Freddie Lynn - were gone.
But the departure that most devastated me? Yaz’s retirement. My favorite player. The captain. He never won it all. He popped up in his last at bat (on a 3-0 too high fastball, grrr). The Sox didn’t look like they were on the cusp, so it was the end of an era and the dawning of... unclear. As a teenager, whose dreams were as yet unfulfilled, I was crushed.
In fairness, everybody looked ridiculous in those Chisox unis....Saw Fisk in Alameda County Stadium in Oakland and he looked utterly ridiculous in his Chisox uni. ...
I'll never forget how cruel some fans at Fenway were to Aparicio. He was at the end of his career but he was a multiple time gold glove winner, All-Star (one of his Boston seasons he was an All-Star) and eventual HoF player. I can remember being at games at Fenway while he was there and fans screaming at him, "You suck Luis!!" You could hear it loud and clear all over the ballpark. In those days attendance averaged under 18k per game, a figure skewed high by weekend attendance. On a weeknight game you could hear the pitcher grunt and the pitch whizzing in and smacking the catcher's mitt. If you were sitting on the 1B side you could hear the popcorn guy on the 3B side. There was a lot of silence in between pitches.Mike Andrews was my favorite player growing up. I remember actually crying when I opened the paper one morning and saw he was traded to the White Sox for Luis Aparicio.
Man, I'm getting old too.
Yup, exactly the same for me.For me, nothing will ever hurt as bad as losing Manny. This is objectively more painful, but, you only get your heart broken for the first time once.
Good riddance.Perhaps oddly, part of my malaise is tied to the very real, at least in my mind, possibility that Tom Brady is next to leave [Foxborough]/NE.
I was at one of Clemens' last home games. August 17, 1996. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199608170.shtmlaka girding ourselves for a potential Mookie exit
At the time, it was Clemens. I was a little too young for Lynn/Burleson/Fisk, and while Evans's last year in Baltimore was sad, it didn't alter my view of reality. I never thought Clemens would leave, and was so despondent when he did that I went through the five stages of grief.
When Mo Vaughn left a couple of years later, I was so toughened up by the Clemens experience, it hardly affected me at all, even though I wished he had stayed.
Nomar's situation seemed untenable, and I wanted no part of a Pedro extension even though I loved him (and still do), so I was OK as I could be about those departures.
Lester being traded and then spurning the Sox the following offseason might be my second biggest hurt, because there was no reason for any of that to happen in the first place. He would have been an easy candidate for an extension if the Sox (Lucchino in particular) hadn't bungled it so badly.
I suffered a TBI in 2014, and know all-too-well what you mean by disorientation, confusion and hostility coming back from it.[...]
The surreal thing: in 2014, I had a pulmonary embolism that nearly killed me. I was in a coma for about a month. Coming out of a coma is not a binary thing - it's not like you're out cold one minute and then chatting as if nothing ever happened. For a week or so, there was a fear that I had incurred some brain damage.* I was disoriented, confused, and hostile*. I had plenty of hallucinations*. I didn't recognize people I knew. So they kept sending these social workers by to ask questions to test basic functioning. What are my parent's names, what year is it, etc., how many days in April, what is three plus nine, how many feet does a cat have, what color is a banana, etc. Progressing out of the coma was not linear. I would have a lucid hour and then be unresponsive and bewildered*. I would just start crying because I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know where I was, I didn't know how many dimes were in a dollar, I couldn't remember where I had gone to elementary school, and I turned on the fucking TV and there was fucking Jon Lester in a fucking A's uniform and what the fuck is wrong with my head i'm losing it I'm going to be chained in bed in a fucking diaper the rest of my life
So yeah, that one was the worst, but not for baseball
*More than usual
If he's still pitching in the AL East?I don't think it's fair to say that it was the right move to let Pedro go. His first year with the Mets was absolutely dominant. Not to his peak levels, but he had a 146 ERA+ over 217 IP with a WHIP of 0.95. In 2006 he was dominating again until he hurt his hip slipping in the tunnel in Florida. He had a 2.79 ERA, an 80/17 K/BB and a 0.83 WHIP over 67.2 IP. The hip injury led to a calf injury and the rotator cuff tear. Did things end up the way Theo most likely thought it would? Sure. But there was no way to know that this would be how it played out. If he doesn't have that fall, are we still saying it was a good decision to let him go?
ERA+ is league and park adjusted and he led the NL in WHIP.If he's still pitching in the AL East?
I think it was the right decision to let him go. His ERA+ in 2005 in the NATIONAL LEAGUE was 146. That is lower than every year he pitched with the Sox except '04. He was still a very good pitcher but was getting great pitcher money.
Edit: That 2005 Mets team also had Brian Daubach, Cliff Floyd, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jose Offerman, and as an extra, eventual Red Sox, Mike Cameron.
I always thought it was adjusted for each league individually? So he was 46% better than the average NL pitcher? ERA+ is comparable across league because it is normalized, but he'd have had much different stats pitching in the AL, even with the same ERA+. I guess we're both right but your point is correct in the analysis.ERA+ is league and park adjusted and he led the NL in WHIP.
And a 1.80 ERA in 2005 in 2 starts (15 IP) and 7 shutout innings against the Yankees in 2006.I know it's silly to argue/discuss this topic with a member named 'PedroisGod' but it's worth noting that at least a bit of the reason BOS let him leave is that the Yankees had increasingly gotten into his head. He had a 3.46 ERA against them in 2002 in 4 starts, a 3.80 ERA in 2003 in 4 starts and a 5.47 ERA in 2004 in 4 starts, plus of course the very public incident where he called NY his 'daddy' during the 2004 ALCS.