Edgar Renteria - 3 - SS
Week 8 - 23-29 May 2005

Just over a week ago, Renteria was hearing it from the Fenway crowds and the talk radio circuit after hitting just .239 through the first seven weeks of the season. His teammate, Kevin Millar, asked the fans and the media to give Renteria a chance, saying that he was too good of a player to not deserve a chance to prove himself. Everyone laughed at Millar’s expense and continued to give Renteria grief but, just a week later, the veteran shortstop, in his first year with Boston, is making Millar’s words seem like an eerie premonition.

Though the Sox lost four of six games this past week, Renteria, who has at least dazzled the crowds with his work in the field, suddenly found his swing and began carving the ball to all parts of the field. In Toronto, he went 6-for-12 (.500) with a triple and two runs scored, raising his average to .257. Then, in the weekend series with New York, he helped the Red Sox take two-of-three by going 10-for-12 with a walk, a double, two home runs, five runs scored, and six RBI. On Saturday afternoon in the Boston’s 17-1 pounding of the Yankees, he was 3-for-3 with a grand slam that broke the game wide open in the fifth and might have done more damage if he hadn’t been lifted after the Sox got well on top.

Following his .667 clip (16-for-24) over the past week, Renteria’s average now sits at a healthy .295, just above his career average of .289, and he now has four home runs and 20 RBI on the season. With the Sox returning to Fenway Park on Monday for a four-game series with the Orioles, it’s likely that those jeers will have turned to cheers when he steps to the plate for the first time.

You would have to guess that anyone who goes by the nickname of “Spaceman” must be a pretty interesting character, and with Bill Lee, you couldn’t be closer to the truth. Once asked whether he preferred grass to artificial turf, the tall, lanky left-hander replied: “I don’t know - I’ve never smoked the fake stuff.” Comments like that were attributed to his laid-back California ways, having been born in Burbank and schooled at the University of Southern California, where his 1968 team won a national championship. With a personality slightly off-center, few people remember that he was actually a great pitcher during the mid-1970s, winning 17 games in three straight seasons between 1973 and 1975.

Lee was drafted in the 22nd round of the 1968 amateur draft by Boston and was called up just over a year later to fill in for ailing Red Sox pitcher Jim Lonborg. Considered an “arm” pitcher because he failed to use his leg to help drive the ball towards home, his bag of slow, deliberate pitches included a natural sinkerball and a bloop curve (referred to by Sports Illustrated as his “Leephus pitch,” in reference to the Eephus pitch made famous by Rip Sewell, a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates staff in the thirties and forties).

In 1971, he was made the ace of the Sox bullpen and went 9-2 with a 2.74 ERA; two years later, Lee was made a permanent fixture of the rotation and responded with 16 wins in 33 starts and an overall 17-11 record with a 2.75 ERA. He made his only All-Star appearance that same year but never got in the game; when American League manager Dick Williams asked his staff before the game whether “anybody doesn’t feel capable of getting the other side out,” Lee raised his hand.

He went 17-15 the following season but, like the rest of the team, struggled in the last month of the season, going 2-4 as Boston lost 18 games and finished a distant third to Baltimore after being five games ahead of second-place New York in late August. The first month of the 1975 didn’t start out well for Lee, either; in April, he went 1-3 with a 5.65 ERA in four starts, giving up 18 earned runs in 28-2/3 innings of work.

However, Lee’s fortunes turned around in a big way over the next four months; between May and August, the skinny left-hander managed 16 wins, with four complete-game shutouts, and only four losses. During a stretch between early July and mid-August, he made eight straight appearances that included seven starts without a loss, including four straight complete game victories, and compiled a 6-0 record with a 3.14 ERA during that span to help Boston pull away from the pack.

By season’s end, he had amassed another 17 wins to give him 51 in three seasons; although he finished third in victories by a Red Sox pitcher behind Rick Wise (19) and Luis Tiant (18), he took fewer losses than both pitchers and also made seven appearances out of the bullpen.

Lee spent the next three seasons with the Sox but managed only a mediocre 24-22 record, in part due to an arm injury that resulted from a bench-clearing scuffle between Boston and New York in May in 1976. Traded to Montreal after the 1978 season, “Spaceman” remained in the game for three-plus seasons, winning 16 games in 1979, but abruptly left the game in 1982 following a dispute with Expos management, finishing his career with 119 wins, a 3.62 ERA, and enough off-the-wall comments made during his 14-year career to create a Fenway Park legend.

It’s not easy being a sports celebrity in the Boston metropolitan region, no matter whose uniform you wear; if there was just one word used to describe the fan base in this area, it would be intense. One day, you’re given a parade downtown along with the key to the city; the next day, you wouldn’t win an election for dog catcher. The banter on the airwaves suggest that fans here tend to expect nothing less than perfection on the field; when a player suddenly slips a few notches below the level that we expect them to player, it doesn’t take long for the media to begin questioning how good a player he is, no matter what he’s done in the past. That is soon followed by every arm-chair quarterback and fantasy league manager offering every possible, off-beat solution to the problem, most of which involve shipping that player in an air-tight container to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

So when the unofficial Red Sox head cheerleader, first baseman Kevin Millar, came to Edgar Renteria’s defense last weekend and told the club’s fan base to stop giving him so much grief, it wasn’t long before the assault began. As expected, Millar got grief for trying to stick up for his teammate and even more grief for highlighting the fact that his level of play thus far this season had been sub par at best; meanwhile, Renteria continued to hear it from everyone within earshot regarding his lack of offensive output and clutch hitting.

If nothing else, the veteran shortstop has learned quickly in just his first few months in a Red Sox uniform that becoming a member of one of the most storied franchises in baseball means the eventual discovery that Boston fans are among the most passionate sports fans in the world. Every season, we turn on our radios and televisions or make our way to Fenway Park and cheer for our beloved Sox in numbers. We study the box scores, review the upcoming schedules, and follow the team from the very first game right down to the very last out on the last day of the season. Generations of fans from Boston and beyond have stood behind this team and relentlessly cheered every year for that season to be the one that a long-awaited championship was finally rewarded to our team.

The fascination with the Sox is so intense, players who otherwise might have had a rather quiet major league existence find their lives forever changed when they put on a Red Sox uniform. Sam Horn, for instance, played just over a hundred games with Boston over three seasons and accomplished very little in his baseball career, but his name is synonymous with one of the World Wide Web’s most popular chat rooms. Dave Roberts, another player whose career has been relatively quiet, will be remembered until the end of time for his stolen base in the bottom of the ninth in Game Four of the 2004 American League Championship Series that led a moment later to a game-tying run and the beginning of something very magical for Sox fans.

As odd as it sounds, Red Sox fans boo players because they support the team. Go to Tampa Bay or Milwaukee and I bet the home team hardly hears a discouraging word from the crowd during the games, no matter the situation; at least, that would be the impression I’d get looking at those half-empty stands. Boston, however, loves its team for better or worse and, for every time they jeer a player during a prolonged slump or a bad outing, they cheer even louder when he redeems himself with a diving catch, a timely hit, or a quality start. Manny Ramirez, Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, and Babe Ruth - all of these players went through rough stretches in their careers and the fans were quick to give them an earful. In the end, however, when their fortunes turned, those same fans were the ones who applauded these efforts the loudest.

Radio and television shows with overly-opinionated hosts don’t really do it for me because, often times, the discussions border on the level of immature blather; they seem to exist only to work up listeners over the frustration of watching a player struggle on the field, whether or not it has hurt the team. Often time, these diatribes border on the harsh and insensitive and that doesn’t seem fair to our players. That doesn’t mean that I don’t get angry when a guy suddenly goes cold at the plate but, like most fans, I am quick to forgive and forget the next time he sends a pitch into the Monster Seats to tie the score or makes the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth. From being a Red Sox fan for many years, I can fully appreciate the fact that a season has its ups and downs and a streak of bad fortune can turn quicker than the tide.

It’s been a week now and, since his 0-for-4 performance last Sunday, Renteria has been on an unbelievable tear; over his last six games, he has gone 16-for-24 to raise his average from .239 to .295. In that time, he’s had three or more hits in four of those starts, two home runs which include a grand slam in Saturday’s thumping of the Yankees, and scored seven runs while knocking in six. When the Sox return to action tonight against the Orioles at home, expect the young ballplayer to hear a resounding cheer throughout Fenway Park and beyond when his name is announced during the pre-game ceremonies and when he makes his way to the plate for his first at-bat. Though it’s unlikely that his recently hitting display will continue, he should finally understand tonight just what it means to play for this club and its fans and that should feel very good indeed.

Wade Miller - 52 - RHP
Week 7 - 16-22 May 2005

Theo Epstein and the Red Sox front office may have made the biggest free-agent acquisition during the off-season when they signed pitcher Wade Miller to a one-year contract on short money that was heavy in incentives. After having shoulder rotator cuff surgery last July, there were questions by his old team as well as several other Major League clubs whether it was realistic to think that he might be ready to pitch sometime this season. Since being activated two weeks ago, Miller has made three quality starts and has quickly proven that Epstein’s gamble was yet another wise decision in his brief tenure as the Boston GM.

After making a half-dozen or so quality rehab starts, Miller made his debut on 08 May against the Mariners, going five innings and giving up just two runs on three hits in a no-decision; less than a week later in Seattle, he lasted 5-2/3 innings and allowed three runs on five hits in another no-decision. Miller finally got that first win in a Red Sox uniform with yet another fine start; besides allowing just one run on three hits to the Atlanta Braves over 6-1/3 innings, he also struck out five while walking just two in an eventual 4-3 win for the Red Sox.

The scouting reports prior to his injury indicated that he had good velocity and it’s obvious that, even with surgery, he hasn’t lost too much of that velocity. At the moment, his fastball travels in the low 90 MPH range and his slider is not too far off that mark. Plus, his arsenal includes a breaking ball that has had more than a few batters look foolish in his starts this season. If Miller can continue to pitch as he has over the past two weeks, he should be a huge asset for the team over the rest of the season, especially if it takes more time for fellow starter Curt Schilling to return from the disabled list.

Thomas Austin Yawkey was more than just the longtime owner of the Red Sox; he was a Boston institution and a pillar of Major League Baseball, though the legacy of his ownership was not without controversy. Though he was willing to dig deep into his pockets to try and bring championships to Boston, coming close only a few times in his 44 years of running the team, his club was slow to accept integration in baseball, a stigma that only recently has been lifted off the collective shoulders of the organization. Still, he was a sportsman in the truest sense of the word and regarded highly by his peers, so much that he was the first person elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame who had never served as a player, a manager, or a general manager.

Born into wealth, the man born Thomas Austin grew up around baseball, thanks in part to his grandfather’s lumber and iron empire which he used to try and purchase the Detroit Tigers. After his grandfather passed away, Tom’s uncle completed the deal; some time later, after the passing of his own father, his uncle adopted Tom as his own and the young lad took his uncle’s name, Yawkey.

It was no surprise that as he reached adulthood, he became interested in trying to acquire his own team and, at age 30, an opportunity came about to purchase the Boston Red Sox, a once-proud club of the American League that had floundered in the basement for years after the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Thus, in 1933, he paid then-owner Bob Quinn $1.5 million for the Sox along with a decaying baseball stadium in Fenway Park.

Yawkey’s first order of business was to renovate the park and spent another $1.5 million on a near-total reconstruction. In a time when the effects of the Great Depression were still far-reaching, he employed thousands of laborers to accomplish the task. All the work was done during the off-season with the promise that the park would be ready for Opening Day in 1934 and, despite a fire occurring twice over the winter, the gates opened in mid-April with the park turned into a palace.

Over the years, Yawkey would pull out his wallet on several occasions to pay big money for talent, sometimes wisely but more often foolishly. Even with the respected Eddie Collins serving as his general manager for several years, Yawkey felt that his inheritance would solve any problem and often threw unheard-of amounts of money at players who were either unproven or past their prime. Sometimes, the value of a player’s worth was measured not by his numbers but by his ability to be a good drinking buddy to the owner, who thought of himself more as one of the boys. Still, under his leadership, the Red Sox showcased Hall-of-Fame talent over the years in the form of Joe Cronin, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski.

The one true error in judgment that he made in all his years came in 1945, when three Negro League players, including future Hall-of-Fame infielder Jackie Robinson, were given the opportunity to try out for the Red Sox but none were even offered a minor-league. It would be 12 years after Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers before Elijah “Pumpsie” Green would be the first African-American player to don a Red Sox uniform, making the Red Sox the last team to integrate. This fact did not escape the eye of the black community and a cloud of racism haunted the organization for many years after that.

Even with that associated with his ownership, he also did a lot of good for the community and was well-respected by those who saw him peer down from his box nearly every night. Over his years as owner, he funneled much of his of time and money into the local community and spent considerable time doing charitable work for groups like the Jimmy Fund, which helped raise money for sick children. He was also regarded as a father figure to those who played for him, often providing advances on salaries, loans with favorable rates, and still some of the best salaries in major league baseball.

By 1975, the once vibrant owner was in ill-health and those closest to him knew that his time was nearing an end. On 09 July 1976, less than a year removed from Boston’s third and final attempt to secure that elusive World Series championship for its beloved owner, Yawkey passed away due to leukemia.

Johnny Damon - 18 - CF
Week 6 - 09-15 May 2005

He looks more like a rock star than a baseball player these days and, judging by the reaction he gets from his fans, you would be forgiven if you made that mistake. He’s got a tell-all book out on the market, appears in at least a dozen commericals (including one quite memorable one for Dunkin Donuts), and has a huge legion of fans following him everywhere. Johnny Damon, with his long locks and his thick beard, is perhaps one of the most recognized faces on the Red Sox these days in his fourth year with the club, but he’s more than just a handsome face.

Despite an 18-game hitting streak coming to an end on Saturday in Seattle, Damon has been red-hot at the plate. In six games over the past week, he was 10-for-26 for a .385 average with a double and a triple, seven runs scored, and three RBI. He now sits third in the American League in batting average at .372 and eighth in on-base percentage at .411; to put it in perspective, he was hitting just .281 with an OBP of .324 before his streak began on 22 April.

Damon’s value in the lead-off spot in the Red Sox lineup is immeasureable; he has scored 28 runs this season and has been successful in four out of five steal attempts. He has also driven in 20 more Boston runs in 34 games this season, batting .403 with runners on base, .447 with runners in scoring position, .500 with runners in scoring position and two outs, and .800 (4-for-5) with the bases full.

Signed to a contract with Philadelphia not long after tossing his graduation cap skyward in June of 1963, Rick Wise found himself pitching for Gene Mauch and the Phillies just one year. Unfortunately, he was part of the “Great Collapse” late in the 1964 season when, with a 6-1/2 games lead in the National League standings, Philadelphia lost 10 straight games over the final two weeks and ended the season one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals. After a year in the minors, Wise enjoyed mild success over his next six seasons in Philadelphia; though he won 70 games for the club, he also lost 73 games, getting double-digit loss totals in his final five seasons. In 1971, he enjoyed perhaps his best season with the organization; besides posting 17 wins against 14 losses and a career-low 2.88 ERA, he also no-hit Cincinnati 4-0 on 23 June and helped his own cause with two home runs, the only pitcher in major league history to accomplish that feat.

Wise then spent two seasons with St. Louis, which also produced mixed results; he went 16-16 in 1972 and 16-12 in 1973. Not long after the 1973 season ended, Wise found himself traded to Boston along with outfielder Bernie Carbo in exchange for Reggie Smith and Ken Tatum. Arm trouble limited his time in his first season with the Red Sox; he made three starts in April and two in May, going 2-2 with a 2.84 ERA, before making just four starts through the rest of the season and finishing at 3-4 with a 3.86 ERA.

The first month of the 1975 season was a mixed bag for Wise; after four starts, he was just 1-2, but Bill Lee and Luis Tiant, the two other big names in the rotation, were also doing poorly. May faired better for Wise as he won four of his seven starts to improve to 5-4. As the halfway point of the season approached, it looked like another typical year for the 29-year-old journeyman pitcher.

So a 9-1 win on 27 June against New York didn’t seem like much at the time, but it was the start of a stretch of play that would help propel Boston further in front of the pack. Wise would win nine of his next ten starts, including six straight, to not only improve to 16-6 but lower his ERA from 5.18 to 4.07. Of those ten starts, six were for complete games and, thanks in part to his efforts, the Sox jumped from a half-game in front of the New York Yankees to seven games in front of the Baltimore Orioles. The most impressive win came on 02 July in the first game of a doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers when he went 8-2/3 innings before allowing a hit, a two-run home run by George Scott, as Boston won 6-3.

Just as suddenly, the right hander seemed to go cold. Following his amazing run, he pitched nine games and lost six of those starts to finish at 19-12 with a 3.95 ERA. Even with his struggles at the end of the season, Wise finished as the Red Sox leader in wins and earned consideration as a candidate for the American League Cy Young award. Wise went on to play two more seasons with Boston before finishing his career with the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres. He also earned the distinction of having won a game against every club in baseball, a feat matched only eight other times.

Wise would start just two games for Boston in the post-season, but it was a relief appearance late in the World Series for which he would be remembered, with the game itself being perhaps the greatest ever played.

When the news broke that Red Sox pitchers Curt Schilling and David Wells, considered the number one and three starters in the rotation, respectively, would miss weeks due to injury, Boston had lost four-of-five and was falling far behind Baltimore and Toronto in the East. Never mind the fact that the Yankees who, with a rotation spearheaded by Randy Johnson that looked so good on paper to begin the season, had slipped nearly into last place alongside Tampa Bay; suddenly the Sox were scrambling to replace these two players and held hope that free agent acquisition Wade Miller, still a week away from joining the rotation after rotator cuff surgery last season, would be ready to immediately jump into the fire. With the odds stacked against them, would it be possible to stay afloat near the top of the standings, or would the Sox slowly sink down into the depths with New York while the division turned upside-down?

As they did last fall when the team was down to its last outs in the American League Championship Series in October, it was the unlikely of heroes who turned around the fortunes of the team. Kevin Millar, Dave Roberts, and Bill Mueller have morphed into Tim Wakefield, Bronson Arroyo, and Matt Clement with support from relative unknown Jeremi Gonzalez, journeyman John Halama, and Miller. Since losing in Texas on 29 April to start a seven-game road tripe, the team has won ten-of-twelve, including five-of-six at home in the last week, and gone from an even .500 to a record of 23-15; on top of that, the rotation has won eight starts in that same span.

Wakefield, the longest-tenured member of the club, won two starts, including number 118 with the Sox on Monday; that put him in sole possession of fifth-place all time for wins in a Red Sox uniform. He allowed just three runs in each of his two starts and lasted better than six innings in both games; that improved his record to 4-1 while giving Boston enough opportunity to better Detroit and Oakland.

Arroyo, who many thought would be forced back to the bullpen once Miller joined the staff, was even better and is making a case to keep the number five spot. In three starts, he allowed just five runs, four earned, on 11 hits and six walks while striking out 17 in 21-2/3 innings of work. His record on the season is a perfect 4-0 and those three starts dropped his ERA more than a run to 2.91; even more impressive, Boston has not lost in his last 16 starts going back to last 15 August.

Clement, the new kid on the block, is looking like another gamble by general manager Theo Epstein that’s paid off in dividends. He’s won two of his last three starts and would have earned his fifth win on Wednesday to lead the staff in that department were it not for a ninth-inning meltdown by closer Keith Foulke. In 20 innings, Clement’s efforts have been nearly identical to Arroyo’s; he’s allowed five runs, four earned, on 14 hits and six walks while striking out 14. With a record of 4-0, his ERA has also dropped a run in that span to 3.06.

Of course, the efforts of the other starters cannot be overlooked, either. Gonzalez, who was plucked from the minors after Schilling went down, has pitched no less than five innings in two starts, allowed just six runs on ten hits and three walks while striking out 13 batters, and has one win to his credit. Halama, in his one start, allowed just two runs on four hits in five innings of work while striking out two for the win. Miller, who started Sunday against Seattle in the second game of a double-header, allowed just two runs on three hits and one walk while striking out six in a no-decision.

Look at it another way: in those twelve games, the starters have pitched 70-1/3 innings, an average of just under six innings of work, and allowed just 23 earned runs for a 2.94 ERA. When you count just Wakefield, Arroyo, and Clement, the averaged just under seven innings of work and 2.30 runs in each start. Without looking through the numbers, I’m sure that there are several teams in both leagues that would love to have three starters in their rotation matching those figures.

That’s not to say that the Red Sox aren’t looking forward to when Schilling and Wells both return from the disabled list. Schilling, who was brought to Boston before last season to make good on the promise to bring a long-awaited championship to this club, is the anchor of the staff and should be a key ingredient to another run. Wells, who may return sooner than expected from his sprained right ankle, has proven already that he still has what it takes to win ball games. It’s hard to imagine that this run of quality starts by Red Sox pitchers would carry through the season without these two returning to the rotation. Still, if Boston is to return to post-season play, fans will look back on the season and remember this key stretch at a time when the odds seemed out-of-favor for the Red Sox.

Keith Foulke - 29 - RHP
Week 5 - 02-08 May 2005

Keith Foulke, who earned the save of a lifetime last October by closing Game 4 of the World Series and thus earning Boston its first championship in 86 seasons, had not carried the momentum from that moment through the first month of the season. At the end of April, he had but three saves to go with a 1-3 record and one blown save in 10 appearances, and his ERA was nowhere near where it was at the end of last season (6.55 versus 2.17). However, manager Terry Francona was not about to give up on his closer and that gamble paid off over the last week.

After a shaky save last Sunday in Texas in which he gave up a two-out, two-run home run that closed the gap to 6-5, Francona had him out there for the last three nights in Detroit and Foulke earned three straight saves, twice nursing a one-run lead. Those three saves in three straight marked the first time in over a year that he had accomplished that feat. He also came in to close the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader and notched save number eight, giving him five saves over Boston’s last eight games.

Foulke should have plenty more opportunities to close games for the Red Sox this season and hopefully lower his ERA, which is still dreadfully high (6.19). However, it takes a lot of guts for a closer that has been knocked down a few times to get back out there and pitch. If Boston is to return to the post-season, such success will depend greatly on his arm; his efforts last week demonstrated to his club that they can call on him from the bullpen whenever necessary.

Dwight Evans may not have been much at the plate when he began his big-league career in 1973 but, sporting a cannon for an arm, he made runners think twice about trying to score on baseballs hit to right field. The man that the Fenway Park crowds affectionately called “Dewey” whenever he stepped to the plate or made a play in the outfield was drafted by the Red Sox in 1969 and gave notice in 1972 that he was ready to join the major league ranks when he won the International League MVP award with Triple-A Louisville, batting .300 with 17 home runs and 95 RBI. When his career ended after 18 full seasons in Boston, he owned eight Gold Gloves and was ranked high among Red Sox club leaders in several offensive categories.

His rookie season was not much to write home about at the plate, batting just .223 at the plate with 10 home runs and 32 runs pushed across the plate; however, he also played 113 games in the outfield, spending most of his time in right field, and made just one error for a .995 fielding percentage. The following season, his offensive output improved, raising his batting average to .281 while driving in 70 runs. He also established his presence in right field, an especially tricky part of Fenway Park where a ball into the corner could rattle around for minutes, giving base runners a chance to make extra bases. His fielding percentage (.990) remained high while making eight assists and starting two double plays.

Offensively, there were no real changes for Evans during the 1975 campaign. A slow start had him batting just .230 through the end of June and he had driven in just 29 runs. However, as the summer began to heat up, so did Dewey. In July, he batted a respectable .283 and then found his stroke the next month, batting .409 to raise his average to .276; it would eventually get as high as .284 before he tailed off in the final week of the campaign to finish at .274. For the season, he drove in just 56 runs, a significant drop from the previous season, but did manage to take a few more out of the park, hitting 13 round-trippers after hitting 10 in each of his first two seasons.

Again, his numbers from the outfield spoke volumes about the value he added to the team defensively. With 115 appearances in right field, he made just four errors to record a fielding percentage of .987 while recording 15 assists, four more than teammate and rookie sensation Fred Lynn and second in the American League to California Angels right fielder Leroy Stanton, and starting eight double plays to lead all outfielders in that category for the AL, although he failed to earn a Gold Glove in recognition of his efforts.

Above all, Evans was heading to the playoffs and, as they had all year, the Sox were counting on his glove more than his bat to help them. Fortunately for Boston, the 23-year-old youngster was there to flash those talents at a crucial moment in that post-season.