The Red Sox will retire Wade Boggs’ number on May 26

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Sep 14, 2002
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Connie Mack dismantled a great As team and sold a bunch of very good older players off to other teams, presumably to save money. The three HOFers he sold - Foxx, Lefty Grove, and Mickey Cochrane - were pissed. More or less as punishment to Mack, they chose to wear the caps of the teams they went to (Sox, Sox, and Tigers, respectively).

From a stats perspective, only Grove did anything of substance on the destination team. But all three would definitely wear As caps under the current HOF regime.
I think Jimmy Foxx could be considered to have contributed something substantive to the RedSox .. 5 time All Star with three top 10 MVP finishes - including MVP in 1938 - the year of the 175 RBI.

edit: forgot link:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/foxxji01.shtml
 

grimshaw

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Also interesting about Foxx was that he came up when he was 17, but barely played his first three years in Philly because Cochrane was blocking him. He could have been the greatest hitting catcher of all time but switched positions. It looks like he was already ready to play every day when he was 18.

And Foxx was great in Boston, (in '39 and '40 he had an OPS+ of 182 and 188) which are better than Ortiz' best but he faded in his 6th year at age 33 because of his alcohol binges and they ended up releasing him. It's a shame that he and Ted only overlapped for one of his prime seasons because that combo would have been up there with Ruth/Gehrig as the greatest ever. From all accounts he was a really, really nice guy too.

Also, tying this into Wade Boggs - both he and his wife died while choking to death on chicken.
 
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ALiveH

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Apr 23, 2010
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I think we should have a Wade Boggs poll - yay or nay. i think pretty much all the intelligent points have been made for or against.
 

Harry Hooper

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NESN just teased a highlight of Boggs from the upcoming Red Sox Town Hall show. Boggs was very emotional about his number being retired, said it was the greatest day of his life (after his marriage and the births of his kids).

On the Winter Weekend show that's on right now, Mike Hazen just gave a shout-out to SoxProspects and SoSH.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Aug 1, 2001
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NESN Winter Weekend coverage just showed a long interview with Clemens, as he is trying to rehab his image with Boston fans. The fact that the team chose to have him be part of this Winter Weekend thing, and then broadcast a friendly interview with him, tells me that the team is planning on retiring his number someday (probably not till after he gets into the Hall of Fame though.)

I am against number retiring in general, but I am really against Clemens ever getting his number retired by the Red Sox. I still hate the guy, no matter how much he tries to mend fences here and rehab his image. He was a great pitcher, no doubt, but he shouldn't have his Red Sox number retired. He won two titles with the Yankees, let them retire his number.

If Clemens gets his number retired by the Red Sox, then Manny Ramirez had better get his retired too. Manny was a great player who was a key part of 2 championship teams here, one of the 25, a huge part of two championship seasons that will always be remembered happily by Red Sox fans. Clemens can't say that (despite his efforts in trying to get the Red Sox to the World Series in ALCS game 7 in 2003, he fell short.) If Clemens gets that jersey retirement honor, then Manny had better too.
 

AB in DC

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That would be funny if they retired 24 for both Evans and Manny. I mean, if they both half-deserve it, then between the two of them...
 

threecy

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Sep 1, 2006
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That would be funny if they retired 24 for both Evans and Manny. I mean, if they both half-deserve it, then between the two of them...
They could advertise it as a Dwight Evans ceremony, then when Dewey's standing on the field, Manny comes running out, shoves him down Jack McCormick style, then high fives a fan in the stands on his way off the field.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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They could advertise it as a Dwight Evans ceremony, then when Dewey's standing on the field, Manny comes running out, shoves him down Jack McCormick style, then high fives a fan in the stands on his way off the field.
I hope they would schedule the ceremony during a series against the Padres if only so Don Orsillo would be in the house to exclaim "Manny is back and he's back big!"
 

E5 Yaz

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That would be funny if they retired 24 for both Evans and Manny. I mean, if they both half-deserve it, then between the two of them...
The Yankees retired 8 for both Yogi and Bill Dickey