Trot Nixon - 7 - RF
Week 10 - 05-11 June 2006

Trot Nixon is one of Boston’s original “dirt dogs,” the way he goes about his business on the diamond like a man possessed. For him, it’s less about the individual accomplishments and more about the team. Clearly, the pinnacle of his career with the Sox was the 2004 championship in which he drove home the final two runs of the series on a wall-ball double in St. Louis. It was the cumulation of a rough season in which he played only 48 games but did manage to bat .315 with six home runs and 23 RBI. 2005 was also frustrating as he missed less time but only batted .275 with 13 home runs and 67 RBI. With 2006 being the last year of his current contract, some wondered if the acquisition of Wily Mo Peña was a sign that the Sox were ready to show the door to Nixon at the end of the season.

Instead, Nixon has given the media and the front office reason to reconsider that thought. Through Sunday, in which he played both ends of a doubleheader (of course), Nixon was batting .317, raising it from .296 to begin the week, and had stroked six home runs while collecting 34 RBI. On Friday night, in a 4-3 win for Boston, Nixon enjoyed what was probaby his best game of the season, going 4-for-4 with a double, a home run, and three RBI; the home run also was the first Nixon had managed to hit at home this season as he stroked a pitch from Vicente Padilla into the bleachers to plate the first three runs of the night for the Sox. Nixon also enjoys one of the highest on-base percentages for the club, with a .426 average thanks in part to 32 walks; he’s also struck out just 18 times in 186 plate appearances, another sign of some improved discipline at the plate.

Counting his time in the minors, Nixon is by far the longest-tenured member of the franchise, having been chosen seventh in the 1993 draft by Boston and never knowing the inner workings of another club. He would love nothing more than to finish his career with the Red Sox and, with Peña on the disabled list for the next four to six weeks, Nixon has ample opportunity to prove that he deserves a new deal at season’s end.

Manny Ramirez - 24 - LF
Week 9 - 29 May-04 June 2006

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that he’s been a Boston fixture now for five-plus seasons, one of the veterans on this team, but Manny Ramirez is one of those players who seems to casually go about his business, putting up impressive numbers as almost an afterthought while the franchise promotes other faces of the organization like David Ortiz and Curt Schilling (unless, of course, he makes a “bonehead play” that suddenly rockets him back into the media spotlight). With a .314 career average, 449 home runs, and 1452 RBI through Sunday, there is little doubt that we are witness to a future Hall of Fame inductee right here in Boston.

Although this past week had no real highlights, he did hit three home runs and drive in another eight runs for Boston as Boston split the first six games of a ten-game road trip with Toronto and Detroit. However, it should also be noted that, after a sluggish start at the plate, Ramirez ended the month of May last Wednesday with nine home runs and 21 RBI while slugging .714 to bring his totals to where we would expect them at this point of the season. He also continues to play well in left field, especially at Fenway Park, having made just one error in 87 chances while also making two outfield assists. Amongst left fielders in the American League, he is second in batting average and home runs and third in RBI while on top in OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) at .999.

Not surprisingly, Ramirez is the leading vote-getter for an outfield position at this summer’s All-Star Game scheduled for next month in San Francisco and it would be his ninth straight selection; it’s hard to argue that he is not deserving of this honor again. Though he may not be the most talkative player in the clubhouse or at the forefront of the image that the club wants to portray, his contributions continue to be a key ingredient to the team’s success to this point of the season. Perhaps his role can best be summed by Teddy Roosevelt’s famous line: Speak softly and carry a big stick.

3 June 1964 - After tearing up the minor league the previous season, Tony Conigliaro made it too difficult for then-manager Johnny Pesky not to reward the youngster with a spot on the major league roster in 1964. He would respond by hitting 24 home runs that season, but perhaps none were bigger than the one he hit on the third of June. At the age of 19 years and 148 days, the East Boston native stepped to the plate in Los Angeles to face Angels pitcher Dan Osinski with the bases juiced and launched a ball over the fence for a grand slam. In doing so, he became the youngest player in major league history to hit a grand slam.

The following year, Conigliaro would hit 32 more home runs to lead the majors and reached the century mark during the 1967 campaign but, after getting beaned by California Angels pitcher Jack Hamilton in August that year, he would never be the same. Though he returned in 1969 to earn Comeback Player of the Year honors with 20 home runs and 82 RBI in 141 games, then hit another 36 home runs and drove in another 116 runs in 1970, career highs in both categories, his sight and skills soon faded. After a brief comeback with the Sox in 1975, he hung up his cleats for good at only 30 years of age; sadly, he was just 45 when he died in 1990 due to complications from a massive heart attack suffered eight years earlier.