Curt Schilling - 38 - P
Week 8 - 22-28 May 2006

Was there any doubt after Saturday night that Curt Schilling would not be the player of the week here? When you reach a milestone like he did that night - notching career win number 200 - you have to tip your hat to the guy. It’s amazing to think that after getting drafted by the Red Sox in 1986, he would not make his debut for them until 2004, if you ignore the fact that he spent 16 seasons in between that time playing for Baltimore, Houston, Philadelphia, and Arizona. When the veteran pitcher accepted a trade before the 2004 season to return to Boston, he knew that his purpose for returning to the organization where he got his start was to help the Sox “break an 86-year-old curse,” as he remarked in an infamous Ford truck commercial shortly after signing a new agreement. Less than a year later, he made good on that promise; with blood seeping through his sock and the look of determination on every pitch he made, he made key contributions to an eventual world championship for the franchise.

After a rough 2005, in which he spent half the season on the DL and managed just eight wins, some wondered just how much longer he would last. Last week, Schilling got not one but two wins to reach the mark. First, against the New York Yankees at Fenway on Monday, Schilling allowed just one run on five hits through eight innings of work while striking out six to post win number 199. Then Saturday, facing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he wasn’t quite as dominant but still managed seven innings, allowing four runs on eight hits while striking out seven to not only match his win total from last season in less than two months time, but to become just the 104th pitcher in major league history to reach the 200-win plateau. Interestingly enough, number 199 came on his daughter’s ninth birthday and number 200 came on his son Gehrig’s eleventh birthday.

Schilling has made it apparent that, once his contract with Boston ends after the 2007 season, he will likely hang up his cleats and call it a career. Right now, he appears to be on the cusp of a potential Hall of Fame enshrinement. With two World Series titles to his credit, nearly 3000 career strikeouts to go with an 8.75 strikeouts per nine inning ratio, putting him in the top ten all-time for that category, and now this, it might be hard to come up with reasons not to vote for him in 2013. For now, Boston fans can enjoy watching the end of a career that will likely not go out with a whimper, but a bang.

Josh Beckett - 19 - P
Week 7 - 15-21 May 2006

So there’s little doubt that the deal that brought Josh Beckett to Boston from Florida late last November has made dividends for Boston; in nine starts this season, the young righthander is 6-1 with a 4.19 ERA. The intensity that helped him take the Marlins to the pinnacle of basball in 2003, a World Series win that earned him MVP honors, is more than evident in his mannerisms on the field, punching the air after recording the final out of an inning on a punchout or as he did Saturday when he ran to cover first and stepped on the bag ahead of the runner.

This past week, Beckett made two quality starts for the Sox, both on the road. In Baltimore on Monday, Beckett pitched seven strong, allowing just a first inning home run to Miguel Tejada and a sixth inning single to Javy Lopez, who was later wiped out on a double play, and faced just 22 batters as Boston rolled to an easy 11-1 win over the hapless Orioles. He also struck out six and, obviously, did not walk a batter. Then, on Saturday in Philadelphia, though not as solid, Beckett still pitched another seven-plus innings, allowing just four runs on six hits and three walks. More impressively, at the plate due to the fact that National League rules applied there, he helped his own cause. In the sixth, he stroked a single with one out to plate the first run of the game for Boston to tie the score. Then, in the top of the seventh, he became the first Red Sox pitcher since Marty Pattin on 27 September 1972 to leave the yard, launching a 2-2 pitch from starting pitcher Brett Myers into the left-center field bleachers to plate the deciding run in an 8-4 win for Boston.

With a three-game win streak to his credit, Beckett is on pace to capture 20-plus wins this season and would be the first Boston pitcher to do so since teammate Curt Schilling won 21 in 2004. His enthusiam on the mound gives Red Sox fans every reason to believe that he can achieve that mark and continue to frustrate the opposition.

21 May 1940 - Jimmie Foxx was already a proven talent when he arrived in Boston to begin the 1936 campaign; today, he ranks sixth all-time in batting average (.320), second in on-base percentage (.429), third in slugging percentage (.605), and seventh in home runs (222) in franchise history. 1938 proved to be his best season in his six-plus seasons in a Boston uniform as he won the American League Most Valuable Player award with a .349 average, 50 home runs, and 175 RBI; the latter two numbers are still Red Sox single season records.

On 20 May 1940, with the bases loaded and the Red Sox trailing 3-2, Foxx stepped to the plate at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit in the fifth inning and cleared the bags with a home run off Tigers pitcher Tommy Bridges to put Boston on top, 6-3, though Detroit would rally and beat Boston, 10-7. The next day, playing in the same park, Foxx again strolled to the plate in the third inning with the bases juiced and, this time, connected of Detroit pitcher Dizzy Trout for his second grand slam in as many days as Boston went on to an eventual 11-8 win. Although other Boston players have hit grand slams twice in a single game, the latest example being Bill Mueller who hit one from either side of the plate in July of 2003, Foxx remains the only player wearing a Red Sox uniform to have hit a grand slam in back-to-back games.

Foxx would finish the season with 36 home runs to go with 119 RBI and a .297 average. His 36 home runs also gave him 12 consecutive seasons that he had hit 30 or more home runs, a feat that remained a record until Barry Bonds hit 30 or more in 13 straight seasons between 1992 and 2004. When he homered on 24 September of that season, he became the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs at the age of thirty-two years and 337 days. Unfortunately, following that season, his abilities took a sharp decline and his career with Boston would come to an end in early 1942, when he was sold to the Chicago Cubs. However, his solid career as a ballplayer that included three MVPs and one Triple Crown to go with two World Series championships with Philadelphia in 1929 and 1930 would be more than enough to earn him a spot in baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1951.

17 May 1944 - By 1944, Bobby Doerr was entering his eighth season with the Red Sox, having been signed by general manager Eddie Collins on the same West Coast trip that brought Ted Williams east to Boston. Well-established as the everyday second baseman, Doerr would finish the season with a .325 average to lead the club as well as 15 home runs, 81 RBI, and 95 runs scored and then join the Army to serve in World War II along with teammates Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Dom DiMaggio.

The highlight of 1944 for Doerr would come on this day as, in the second half of a double-header with the St. Louis Browns, he would hit for the cycle; unfortunately, Boston pitchers would also combine for 14 walks as the Red Sox lost, 12-8, after winning the first game, 5-1. That made him the seventh player in club history at the time to accomplish the rare feat and the first since Leon Culberson had done it the previous July.

Following his year of service, Doerr returned to the club in the spring of 1946. On 13 May 1947, nearly three years to the day, Doerr would become the only player in the history of the franchise to hit for the cycle twice, repeating the feat against the White Sox in a 19-6 blowout at Fenway Park. Doerr would continue to play until being forced to retire late in 1951 due to severe sacroiliac pain and, in 1984, enter baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Mark Loretta - 8 - 2B
Week 6 - 08-14 May 2006

Mark Loretta marks the fourth player in the last four years to take center stage at second base, following Todd Walker, Mark Bellhorn, and Tony Graffanino. He came at a price that some Fenway fanatics felt was too high a price: Doug Mirabelli, Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher for the past few years. Fortunately, a trade in recent weeks has corrected that move and, in the meantime, Loretta has established himself nicely as the everyday second baseman, looking good in combination with Alex Gonzalez to give Boston a very real double-play threat.

He’s also come around in recent weeks at the plate. After dropping to a season-low of .207 on 03 May, Loretta has been on fire at the plate in the number two spot of the order, going 15-for-35 (.428) in his last eight games with five doubles, eight runs scored, and five RBI. Last week, he was a one-man wrecking crew in New York; against the Yankees during a three-game mid-week series, he was 9-for-16, including 4-for-6 in the third and final game, knocking home three runs including the tying run and the eventual game-winner with two outs in the seventh of a 5-3 win. As mentioned, he’s also looked good in the field, making just two errors in 139 total chances, a .986 fielding percentage, while helping to turn 21 double plays.

With just a one-year deal on the table, there’s no guarantee that the 12-year veteran will be around long than one season with the Sox as farmhand Dustin Pedroia has Boston in his sights, a potential late-season call-up. However, Loretta, who is now on his fourth team in five seasons, seems to be focused only contributing this season to helping his new club make another run at the post-season and a second world championship in three seasons. With little to complain about in regards to his glove, Red Sox fans can only hope that his hot streak at the plate continues through the rest of the season.

10 May 1946 - The streak began innocently enough; after losing to New York at Fenway Park, 12-5, on 24 April during the 1946 season, the Red Sox came back the next day and won the second game of the series by an identical score, with righthander Joe Dobson getting the win and Eddie Pellagrini, a native of Dorchester, MA, hitting a double, a triple, and a home run to pace the offense. At 7-3, Boston was already tied with New York and the Detroit Tigers for first in the American League (then a single division), but the next two weeks would prove to be decisive in the final outcome of that season.

The Red Sox hit the road for three games in Philadelphia versus the Athletics and swept the series by scores of 7-0, 2-1, and 5-1 to give themselves a four-game winning streak. However, that did little to stir excitement in Boston as the Red Sox had opened the season with five straight wins. Back at Fenway Park, Detroit paid a visit, now two games behind Boston. The Red Sox easily took the first two games of the series 4-0 and 13-1, but it took extra innings for Boston to pull out the brooms for a second straight series. Tied at four in the bottom of the tenth, young left fielder Ted Williams sent a pitch into the right field bleachers to run the winning streak to seven games while essentially knocking Detroit out of the pennant race that season.

Two more wins came at the expense of the Cleveland Indians to run the streak to nine games, and Boston now boasted a 15-3 record, though just two games in front of New York who had won six-of-eight since leaving Fenway. The St. Louis Browns then paid a visit to Boston two days later to begin a three-game series with a doubleheader, but the Red Sox took both ends that day by scores of 7-5 and 5-4. Boston closed the series with a dramatic 10-6 win on 06 May thanks to outfielder Leon Culberson, who hit a walk-off grand slam to end a 14-inning marathon, the second extra-inning contest won by the Red Sox during the streak.

With two games left on the homestand against the Chicago White Sox, the Red Sox won a barnburner, 14-10, to open the series, with shortstop Johnny Pesky setting an American League record for runs scored in a game with six. A 7-5 victory the next day completed the perfect homestand (10-0) and also extended the win streak to an unbelieveable 14 games. With the Red Sox back on the road for two weeks, many doubted that Boston could continue to keep the streak alive, but Boston opened a weekend series in New York on 10 May 1946 with a 5-4 win over the Yankees to make it 15 straight, a club record, and give the Sox a 21-3 record to start the season.

Finally, the next afternoon, Yankees starter Tiny Bonham put an end to the winning streak by blanking the Sox over nine innings to give New York a 2-0 victory. However, Boston would get the last laugh that season; after winning 41 of its first 50 games, the Red Sox would finish the season with 104 games to easily win the American League pennant by twelve games over Detroit and 17 games over New York.

Wily Mo Peña - 22 - CF/RF
Week 5 - 01-07 May 2006

When the Sox suddenly traded away Bronson Arroyo in the midst of spring training, in return they got Wily Mo Peña, an outfielder from the Cincinnati Reds who was also a teammate of David Ortiz’s on the Dominican Republic’s World Baseball Classic squad that played for national pride this past March. Ortiz, a slugger in his own right, waxed poetic about the young ballplayer and told reporters: “I’ve never seen a guy hit a ball harder than that guy.” Of course, a quick look at his career statistics revealed one thing: while he did have the power numbers, he was also prone to strike out, so many believed that the Sox were taking a huge chance. Called into action after Coco Crisp went out, the season started slowly for Pena (he was hitting just .261 on 17 April with nine strikeouts in his first nine games) while Arroyo was winning his first few starts for the Reds in commanding fashion. To top that, he looked horrendous in right field, making Kevin Millar seem like a Gold Glover.

However, after making the switch to center field in late April, Peña has come alive. His defensive play has looked much better as he tracks down long fly balls to deep center and catching up to sinking line drives; though he is no Crisp or Johnny Damon, to his credit, he has not commited a single error this season. As for his bat, that too has also shown improvement; after dipping to a season-low .258 on 26 April, he has been red-hot at the plate, batting .368 to raise his average to .319. He even had a modest seven-game hit streak that ended Sunday in which he batted .400 with four multiple-hit games. Though his other numbers are still somewhat modest, he does have three home runs, 13 RBI, and eight runs scored while sporting a respectable .522 slugging percentage.

The early season jeers have now become cheers from the crowds at Fenway Park for the man who admits to having no interest in hitting the weight room. Instead, he gets his strength, he claims, from working on his father’s banana plantation in his native country, according to a recent Sox radio broadcast. A tough decision awaits when Crisp eventually comes off the disabled list later this month as to where to put Wily Mo in the lineup but, for now, his hot bat is driving opposing pitchers and coaches bananas.

05 May 1904 - When Cy Young arrived in Boston for the American League club’s first season in 1901, he was already a well-known hurler, having won 286 games in eleven seasons with the Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis Cardinals of the National League, an average of 26 per season. In fact, Young was not so young at that point, already 34 years old when he put on the Boston club uniform. In his first three seasons with Boston, he won 93 games while posting a modest 1.95 ERA, and he helped led Boston to a win in the very first World Series ever played in 1903, going 2-1 with a 1.85 ERA in four appearances, throwing three complete games.

On 05 May, Young took the mound at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston (now part of the Boston University campus) to face manager Connie Mack, lefty Rube Waddell, and the Philadelphia Athletics. Having thrown eight consecutive no-hit innings in his previous start, Young proceeded to retire all 27 batters in order, the first perfect game ever thrown in the American League and just the third in modern baseball history. According to reports, not a single ball was hit hard against Young in the game; Mack, who would manage the club from 1901 until 1950, would commit many years later that it was, in fact, the most impressive game ever pitched.*

In Young’s next start, he would throw six more innings of no-hit ball, with his streak ending at a major-league record 23 innings. Young would continue to pitch until 1908 for Boston, throwing another no-hitter in that final season with the club (now called the Red Sox) at the age of 41 in a win over New York.

*Source: Baseball Almanac

Mike Lowell - 25 - 3B
Week 4 - 24-30 April 2006

When Boston made the trade that sent promising prospect Hanley Ramirez to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett, part of the deal forced the Red Sox to take on the huge $9 million salary that belonged to one Mike Lowell, who had averaged 28 home runs and 94 RBI between 2002 and 2004 with the Marlins but looked awful in last season with just eight and 58, respectively, while batting a miserable .236, a career low. Although he had never failed a drug tst, whispers of “steriods” by the media had people pointing to that reason as to his sudden power loser. This season, Lowell plans to prove the naysayers wrong and, thus far, has done as promised.

With one month in the books, Lowell had performed well; though he has just two home runs and 12 RBI in his first 28 starts, he also finished the month of April with a a healthy .318 average and a league-leading 11 doubles. Though Boston lost four of six over the past week, the 32-year-old third baseman was doing his part, going 10-for-23 (.435) with a home run and four RBI. He’s also looked very good at the hot corner; though he has three errors thus far, he has shown range much like his predecessor, Bill Mueller, and has saved more than a few runs with some diving stops of sharply-hit grounders and line drives worthy of standing ovations from the crowds.

Though his power numbers are still off, Lowell is showing signs that he has left his horrible final season with Florida in the past and is ready to do what he needs to do to help this team win. Already the Boston fans and media have shown their appreciation for his efforts and it will be interesting to see if he does indeed return to the form that made him such an offensive threat for many years with the Marlins. Until then, so long as he continues to produce at the plate and shine with the glove, he should be in those good graces for this season with the Red Sox.