I already went through baseball-reference and the historical stats from mlb.com to come up with a list of about 120 guys who made a significant impact on the Sox. I'll send the list to everyone who wants in on the project and we can go from there. We'll rank the players and then write a few paragraphs for each player. Hopefully I can get enough people involved where we'd each only write 3 or 4 bios a piece. Then the resulting rankings and bios get posted on as many Sox blogs as we can get. ...If you want to help, click the link for Brian's blog.
I'd like anyone and everyone involved in it, even if they're not a blogger. As long as someone has an email address, a pulse, and wants to help with either making the list or writing the bios then they're qualified. The more Red Sox fans we can get together for this project, the better.
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January 12, 2007
Top 100 Red Sox Of All Time
Brian at Friendly Fenway wants to compile the definitive list of the top 100 Red Sox players of all time. In his mail to me, he wrote:
Andrew tried this once. I don't think it worked.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.12eight.org/2006/04/14/top-100-red-sox-list/
The list should be best Red Sox careers, so Rickey is out. But why not include one-year wonders if that year was amazing?
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit different than best players ever, but Rob Neyer's very excellent "Big Book of Baseball Lineups" includes a best "all-time" lineup for every team. It also has the "#2 team", "homegrown", "traded away", "gold glover", "iron glove", all-bust", "used to be great" and "all-name".
He also sticks closely to actual position, so he doesn't cheat and list TSW, Yaz and Rice and the best outfield because they are all left fielders.
Neyer's All-Time Sox lineup (through 2002):
C: Fisk
1B: Foxx
2B: Doerr
3B: Boggs
SS: Nomar
LF: TSW
CF: Speaker
RF: Evans
DH: Rice
SP: Clemens, Pedro, Cy Young, Joe Wood
RP: Radatz
Second Team:
C: Wally Schang
1B: Mo Vaughn
2B: Pete Runnels
3B: Jimmy Collins
SS: Pesky
LF: Yaz
CF: Fred Lynn
RF: Harry Hooper
DH: Yaz
SP: Lefty Grove, Mel Parnell, Babe Ruth, Luis Tiant
RP: Ellis Kinder
Neyer calls Gedman and Sammy White "the two next-best Sox catchers" in his Fisk note, then names Schang to the No. 2 team.
Top 100 players of all time, top 100, I would rather memorize Jack's poem book.. I know right now is a boring time for baseball but top 100..Jack no disrespect , just never really been a poem guy..Limmericks are cool though, especailly Irish ones....
ReplyDeleteBy the way, is it me, or are those word verifiaction tests getting harder?
ReplyDeleteIt's not you. Blogger is having major problems. I have to log in 30 times a day, and I have to do the wordy thing at least twice every time, often 3 or 4 times.
Two questions for Allan.
ReplyDeleteDo you agree with where Neyer put Babe?
Do you agree with where Jack put Pedro?
Do you agree with where Neyer put Babe?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Ruth pitched in Boston for only 3 full seasons, 4 if you count 1918 and while he was one of the best in the game the entire time, it seems a bit high.
Do you agree with where Jack put Pedro?
No. If Fat Billy is #3, Pedro cannot be #10 (and below Ortiz).
Yaz seems too high, as does Speaker.
I was thinking Cy Young was also too high, but in his 8 years in Boston, he finished 1-3-2-5-2-5-2 in adjusted ERA. Not shabby, but
Pedro's 7 seasons: 2-1-1-x-1-1-8.
A quick Top 5: TSW, Pedro, Clemens, Yaz, Manny (his fielding puts him below Yaz).
I confess to lowering Pedro because 1) I think great everyday players are more valuable than great pitchers
ReplyDeleteBut you put Clemens #3.
Speaker has to get some bonus ponts for being the main star in the Sox team that won all the championships
Why? He was either good enough to rate his spot or not. Rings should have nothing to do with it.
most improbable Sox pennant ever?
Coming back from being 3 outs from a 0-4 sweep to win the pennant is more improbable than 1967. (Though being only 3 years old during the Impossible Dream might have something to do with that opinion.)
Jack I would have loved to ask my father this question, he was a huge yaz fan...Who would you compare him to in today's game?
ReplyDeleteI saw him late in his career and idolized him more for the fact that my father said he could no wrong....
He was more comparable to a Ripken and a Brett than say ., Williams, Rice or Ramirez.......would you agree.
Do you agree with where Neyer put Babe?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Ruth pitched in Boston for only 3 full seasons, 4 if you count 1918 and while he was one of the best in the game the entire time, it seems a bit high.
Do you agree with where Jack put Pedro?
No. If Fat Billy is #3, Pedro cannot be #10 (and below Ortiz).
Yaz seems too high, as does Speaker.
Thanks. That's what I thought you'd say. :)
* * * *
The best summer of my life, bar none.
Jack, was 1967 the best summer of your life only because of the Red Sox, or do you now remember the 1967 season as possibly more magical than it was, because it coincided with the best summer of your life?
I'm always interested in how our own lives - our internal reality - affect our memories of external events. Music and sports are like that for so many people.