After overcoming a cancer diagnosis in 2006 to pitch for the Red Sox in 2007, southpaw Jon Lester was honored on Wednesday with the 2007 Tony Conigliaro Award. The honor is given to players who have overcome an obstacle and adversity and is named after the former Boston outfielder who was tragically struck by an errant pitch in 1967 but returned to earn Comeback Player of the Year honors in 1969. He played another full season for Boston before the effects of the pitch on his vision forced him to retire shortly into the 1971 season; however, he then made an abbreviated comeback with the Sox in 1975 and got a hit in his first at-bat on Opening Day at Fenway Park. Sadly, the East Boston native suffered a massive heart attack in early 1982 while interviewing for a broadcast position with the Sox and passed away eight years later at age 45 in 1990.

Lester, who was 4-0 in 12 starts this season and won the decisive Game Four of the World Series for the Sox, started 15 games in 2006 and posted a 7-2 record before doctors discovered a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in late August 2006 during a physical that followed a minor car crash nearly two weeks earlier that month. Following treatment, CT scans a few months later showed that the cancer was in remission, and the young pitcher joined his teammates in Fort Myers the following spring. Lester then started the season for the Greenville Drive, a Red Sox Single-A affiliate, before moving to Triple-A Pawtucket in late April. In mid-June, Boston removed Lester from the disabled list but kept him in Pawtucket to continue his rehabilitation. Nearly a month later, with his parents watching on from the stands at Jacobs Field, he made his first major league start of 2007 on July 23 against the Indians in Cleveland, going six full innings and allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out six and picking up his first win in nearly a year.

In the post-season, Lester made two relief appearances in the American League Championship Series versus Cleveland and pitched a total of 3-2/3 innings, giving up two runs on three hits. Lester was then given the ball to start Game Four of the World Series against Colorado in place of veteran Tim Wakefield, who had been left off the series roster due to back problems. He responded by keeping the Rockies off the board in 5-2/3 innings while yielding just three hits and three walks and striking out three; he eventually earned the series-clinching win for Boston as the team celebrated its second championship in four seasons.

Lester is the second Boston player to be honored; former pitcher Bret Saberhagen, who came back from serious shoulder injuries to win 15 games for the Red Sox in 1998, received the award that same season. The following year, current Boston third baseman and 2007 World Series MVP Mike Lowell was honored after being treated for testicular cancer in spring training and returning to average .258 while collecting 12 home runs and 47 RBI for the Florida Marlins over the final four months of the 1999 season.

25 November 2002 – On this day five years ago, Boston Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino hires Theo Epstein to serve as the team’s general manager, at the same time making him the youngest person to serve in this capacity. Less than a year after ownership of the Red Sox was transferred from John Harrington and the Yawkey Trust to the group led by commodity trading advisor manager John Henry and television producer Tom Werner, Boston needed to replace interim GM Mike Port. Lucchino recommended Epstein, who had served under him with the San Diego Padres organization as the team’s Director of Baseball Operations. Epstein, who was nearly a month shy of his twenty-ninth birthday, was more than eager for the opportunity to turn around the fortunes of a franchise that he had rooted for growing up in the shadows of Fenway Park in neighboring Brookline.

In 2003, his first season as the new general manager, and under the tutelage of Lucchino and the father of Sabermetrics, Bill James, Epstein worked to shape a Boston squad with more focus on numbers and objective evidence. The results were a return to the playoffs for the first time in four years but a disappointing loss in the seventh game of the American League Championship Series to New York. The following season, Epstein was at the forefront of a controversial decision to trade away fan favorite Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs at the end-of-July trading deadline, knowing that the eventual outcome would make or break his short-lived career. The gamble paid off as the two players brought into the fold, Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz, as well as a trade for outfielder Dave Roberts, became integral parts of a club that ended 86 years of frustration with its first World Series title since 1918. The following season, Boston made the playoffs for a third straight season, the first time that had happened in club history, but the defending champions were bounced out in the first round by the eventual world champion Chicago White Sox.

Citing personal reasons, Epstein briefly left the club at the end of October 2005 after rejecting a substantial offer to stay for another three seasons, but returned in mid-January to resume his duties as general manager while also accepting the title of Executive Vice President. Although the team would miss the playoffs for the first time during his tenure in 2006, the popular GM rebounded in 2007 along with his club and captured the club’s first divisional title since 1995 along with the team’s second World Series in four seasons.

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis strung together 135 errorless games and 1,094 errorless innings at first base during the 2007 regular season for a fielding percentage of 1.000, a feat of perfection that has been duplicated only once before in major league history. He has also played 190 consecutive errorless games in the regular season at first base, three shy of Steve Garvey’s major league record, and has easily surpassed the old Red Sox record (120 games by Stuffy McInnis) and American League record (178 games by Mike Hegan). For his efforts, American League managers and coaches last week honored the four-year veteran his first Rawlings Gold Glove award, one year after making the full-time switch from the third base position where he was raised as a professional player. He is the first Red Sox player to earn the honor since teammate Jason Varitek won the honor at the catcher’s position in 2005 and only the second Red Sox first baseman to be recognized, the other being George Scott, who won it three times between 1967 and 1971.

Since the awards were first handed out in 1957, 16 Red Sox players have captured the honor a total of 36 times. The first year the awards were given, only one award was made for both leagues, and Frank Malzone won the inaugural honor at third base. Five Boston players have won the award multiple times, with former outfielder Dwight Evans holding the team record with eight Gold Gloves won between 1976 and 1985 and Carl Yastrzemski capturing seven in his 23 seasons with the club. Nine times, the Red Sox have had more than one honoree in the same season; twice they have had three. Yastrzemski, Scott, and outfielder Reggie Smith all won at their positions in 1968 and Evans, outfielder Fred Lynn, and shortstop Rick Burleson each capture the honor in 1979. The last time the Sox had more than one winner in a single season came in 1990, when pitcher Mike Boddicker, the only Boston player to ever win a Gold Glove as a pitcher, and outfielder Ellis Burks both won. Gold Gloves have been at a premium for Boston players since averaging better than one per season between 1957 and 1985; catcher Tony Pena in 1991 had been the last Red Sox player to capture the defensive honor before Varitek ended a 14-year drought in 2005, giving the team a total of just five awards in the last 22 seasons.

Written by Boston Globe National Baseball writer Nick Cafardo, Boston Red Sox: Yesterday & Today chronicles the team’s rich history, from its humble beginnings to the success that it is today, with the use of stunning photographs that capture the familiar and heart-warming images of the franchise through the years. Even for well-seasoned fans familiar with the highs and lows of Boston’s American League representative, this book will give a new, visual perspective on some of the most memorable moments and legendary players that have given fans reason to root for the Red Sox year after year.

The first subject covered is the beautiful ball yard that the Sox have called home for 95 years: Fenway Park. With its quirky dimensions and unique features, it has often been copied but never duplicated; words and rich photographs capture the feel of the wooden grandstand seats, the magnitude of the legendary Green Monster, and the smell of a warm Fenway Frank. The book then turns to examining some of the legendary teams that played on its field and some of the players who made up those great teams. The names and faces are more than familiar to longtime fans, like Young, Speaker, Williams, Yastrzemski, Fisk, Rice, Clemens, Martinez, and Ortiz, to name just a few. Next, the subject turns to the Fall Classics, from the lows of losing Game Seven in 1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986, to the highs of winning the inaugural World Series in 1903 as well as the 2004 Classic that broke an 86-year drought between championships. Finally, the book recalls a few of the magical moments in team history as seen through the camera’s eye, such as Ted Williams’ heroics in the 1941 mid-summer classic, the 17 runs scored by the Sox in one inning in a game in 1953, Carl Yastrzemski’s Triple Crown in 1967, Dave Henderson’s home run in Game Five of the 1986 ALCS, and Dave Robert’s stolen base in the 2004 ALCS.

This is more than just a simple book on Red Sox history, trivia, and lore; Boston Red Sox: Yesterday & Today employs a unique photographic approach to document the past and present of the legendary franchise that has thrilled fans for over a century.

Whether or not you can name the player who holds the record for hitting into triple plays (Brooks Robinson, who did it four times) or the first left-handed pitcher to win the Cy Young Award (Warren Spahn), Grand Slam Baseball was written to entertain even the most knowledgeable trivia buffs. Included are: brief biographies on some of baseball’s most influential personalities, from Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner to Hank Aaron and Roger Clemens; tales of some of the greatest teams assembled, from the 1885-1888 St. Louis Browns to the 1998 New York Yankees; and some of the greatest games ever played, from Game Eight of the 1912 World Series to Game Six of the 1975 World Series. In between, you’ll find plenty of other unique and unusual facts, trivia, and statistics told in storybook fashion to entertain you during pitching changes, rain delays, and the hot stove season. These anecdotes include: the rise and fall of Denny McLain, the last pitcher in baseball to win 30 games in a single season; the success of Cal Hubbard, the only person elected to both the baseball and football Halls of Fame; the practices of superstitious ballplayers like former Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer, who ate pancakes before every start, and Charlie Kerfield, who wore the same T-shirt under his jersey for the entire 1986 season; the exploits of a religious community that raised money as a barnstorming baseball team; a feature on Steve Dalkowski, the best pitcher you’ve never heard of; the greatest turnarounds made by teams facing impossible odds; and the more colorful, if not controversial, characters to own a baseball team.

Crafted from stories taken from the long and colorful history of the sport, Grand Slam Baseball is perfect for your coffee table or nightstand and offers plenty of fascinating tales that everyone from the casual enthusiast to card-carrying baseball fanatics will treasure.

07 November 1989 - Eighteen years ago today, Nick Esasky, after just one season playing first base for Boston, turns down a long-term offer from the Red Sox and signs a sizable free agent contract with Atlanta; unfortunately for both Esasky and the Braves, the 6-foot-3 power hitter is forced to retire the following spring due to a serious illness. Nearly a year earlier in December of 1988, the Red Sox had sent pitcher Jeff Sellers, first baseman Todd Benzinger, and minor leaguer Luis Vasquez to the Reds in exchange for the six-year veteran, a 1978 first-round draft selection out of high school by Cincinnati, and pitcher Rob Murphy. He paid immediate dividends in Boston by setting several career highs during the 1989 regular season, including a .277 batting average, 30 home runs, 108 RBI, and 79 runs scored; his home run and RBI totals placed him in the top five in the American League for both categories, enough to earn some votes for AL MVP.

Believing they had found the future at first base, the Red Sox offered Esasky a long-term deal at season’s end, but he turned down the offer to become a free agent and sign a lucrative three-year contract with his hometown Atlanta Braves worth a total of $5.6 million. Unfortunately, the following spring, the young ballplayer began to experience symptoms of vertigo that stemmed from an ear infection. He played just nine games with Atlanta before the illness forced him to retire as he finished his career with a batting average of .250, 122 home runs, and 427 RBI.