On Thursday, August 12, 2004, the Red Sox shutout the Devil Rays 6-0.
The Right Arm of God pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts, allowing six hits and zero walks. The Pro had two doubles, a single, a walk, and scored two runs. Approximately two months away from going through (and creating) some crazy shit, Flo went 3-for-5 and drove in two runs.
Also on that day, Diego Hernández as born in Pueblo, Mexico.
Hernández, now 18 but still one year younger than this blog*, was traded today by the Yankees to the Red Sox, only the seventh time in the last 55 years that the two long-time rivals have swapped players. Hernández pitched in the Dominican Summer League last year. In exchange, New York got outfielder Greg Allen, who played in 15 games for them in 2021.
*: Post #1 was on August 26, 2003. This is Post #9,290.
The Joy of Sox post for that 2004 game is here. The week before, the Red Sox had finally stopped dicking around – they'd been playing .500 ball for three months – and started a hot streak that showed everyone what they could do. From August 7 to September 8, Boston went 26-5.
And from October 17-27, they went eight and motherfucking oh. You probably didn't need the reminder, but . . .
Thomas Harrigan (mlb.com) goes through the seven previous trades. In 1997, four months after getting Tony Armas Jr. from the MFY, Boston sent him on to Montreal as the final player in the Pedro Martinez deal. (Thanks, Yanks!)
But then Harrigan fucks it all up at the end by including Babe Ruth under "Other Notable Trades". That was not a fucking trade. Yes, Boston exchanged Ruth's contract for cash, which is just as good as money, but that's usually – and correctly – referred to as a goddamn sale. Harrigan writes that it might be "the most famous sports transaction ever" (I'd say it is, no might be about it) and he does use the word "purchased", but it's the last item in an article about trades. It's been 103 years since that infamous event and sportswriters still can't correctly relate the most simple fact about it.
1 comment:
The last active player who was born in the 1970s was Fernando Rodney, who retired after the 2019 season at age 42. Ichiro Suzuki also retired earlier that season at age 45 after just two games played (those games were played in the Tokyo Dome). The latter was also the last active MLB player born before me (by three months).
Hill just misses the cut, having been born in March 1980. He is currently the oldest active MLB player, just ahead of Nelson Cruz, who was born in July 1980.
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