One season or fewer: your favorite short-term Red Sox.

Y Kant Jody Reed

New Member
Jul 19, 2012
37
I remember one of the Cone starts at Fenway in September 2001 where he was going toe to toe with Mussina...it was 0-0 late in the game and I think the Yankees scored on an error to take a 1-0 lead. I remember feeling really bad for Cone that he was gonna get the loss that game.
IIRC, second baseman Lou Merloni booted a potential double-play ball (scorched) that would have gotten Cone out of some trouble. The New Yorker's Roger Angell (who'd profiled Cone's 2000 season) wrote about this game in a Sporting Scene feature about the slow fade of the 2001 Red Sox (subscribers only I think): http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/09/24/legends-of-the-fens

The game—which would end up 1-0, Yankees, with the losing pitcher more or less in triumph and the winner in near-despair—will go straight into the Boston family storybook. Indeed, you can already savor the bitter, flushed-faced joy of future Back Bay grandpas and barflies when they come to the good part—the ninth-inning pinch-hit, two-out, two-strike single sailed into left center by Carl Everett for the first and only Sox hit of the evening, and the ruination of Mussina's masterpiece. "Sure, the Yankees won it, lad—what did you expect—but oh, my!"

Some great stuff in there as well about Cone's late-career smoke-and-mirrors act, and the misery of the Joe Kerrigan interregnum.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,548
Orlando Cepeda, way past his prime, as the Sox first DH in 1973. I remember a few balls he absolutely crushed but he could barely run by then so anything in the gaps usually wound up as a single. Great hitter in his prime.
This reminds me, I'm reading Howard Bryant's biography on Henry Aaron (which is great BTW, you should go to Amazon [through the SoSH link, natch] and order it right now). I'm at the part where Aaron is leaving the Braves at the end of the 1974 season and there was speculation that there were two places that Aaron would finish out his career as DH: Milwaukee (where he wound up) and Boston.

Even though he was pretty much washed up, Henry Aaron on the 1975 Boston Red Sox would have been unbelievable. I bet that he would have ranked high in this thread had it come to be.
 

HowBoutDemSox

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 12, 2009
10,104
Quintin Berry was a fun one. Acquired at the waiver trade deadline in August 2013, went 5 for 8 with a walk for a cool 1.667 OPS the rest of the season, plus 3 for 3 on stolen bases in the regular season and 3 for 3 on stolen bases in the postseason on the way to the championship that year. A post-Dave Roberts version of Dave Roberts.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

critical thinker
SoSH Member
Dec 19, 2009
9,386
Álex González, bending the rules a bit, was pretty great both times he was with the Sox for one year, especially in the field.

Carlos Peña was a lot of fun when he was here in 2006 and I liked getting to see John McDonald get a chance to wear Boston colors even if he didn't do much. I liked the J.T. Snow signing but he did pretty much nothing. And, again bending the rules a bit, but Mike Myers was fun in his stint here. Bobby Kielty in 2007, Sean Casey in 2008, to support my fellow gingers.
 

rarob

New Member
Dec 13, 2005
5
Pensacola
Although he was here for 2 years, 1967 & 1968, utility infielder Jerry Adair was 'clutch' and an integral part of the Impossible Dream.
 

reggiecleveland

sublime
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Mar 5, 2004
27,958
Saskatoon Canada
This has to be Ocab. I suppose for any of these favourite lists we need to disqualify 04 players. But I loved Ocab, and conversely hated the joyless Renteria.

 

Spacemans Bong

chapeau rose
SoSH Member
I remember one of the Cone starts at Fenway in September 2001 where he was going toe to toe with Mussina...it was 0-0 late in the game and I think the Yankees scored on an error to take a 1-0 lead. I remember feeling really bad for Cone that he was gonna get the loss that game.

But the Red Sox did redeem a little bit of dignity because Mussina had been pitching a perfect game and Carl Everett as a pinch hitter broke it up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and an 0-2 count. I couldn't believe Moose had given up a hit on an 0-2 count given how unhittable he was that game.
I gained a lot of respect for Cone that year because the Red Sox were completely disintegrating on and off the field by that point, and Cone seemed to be one of the few guys out there doing well and giving a crap.

They were 3 out on August 24th and then lost 14 out of their next 15. They had to go on a five game winning streak to end the season just to rescue an above .500 record.