-Jackson Browne, ''Late For the Sky''
This was the year the Red Sox broke free of the Yawkey legacy for the
first time since 1933. It was the year Ted Williams died. It was a year
when the Sox won 93 games and didn't even get a sniff of the postseason.
The 1967 Red Sox, easily New England's favorite baseball team of all
time, finished 92-70. They inspired books, anthems, bread endorsements,
even a best-selling vinyl record.
The 2002 Sox finished one game better than the Impossible
Dreamers, yet go down in local history as one of the most puzzling and
maddening editions in Fenway history.
There was nothing personally distasteful about this team. There was
none of the bad karma that polluted the Fenway clubhouse so many times in
other years. The players just seemed to lack urgency and accountability.
All year. The new management made great efforts to keep players happy.
Perhaps the fellows were too fat and comfortable.
Checking the autopsy report, we can talk about the bullpen, Manny
Ramirez's six weeks on the shelf, the black hole at first base, the
one-run losses, Dustin Hermanson's injuries, an inability to beat the
National League, and the curious aversion to playing at Fenway. Still,
it's difficult to define exactly why this team isn't starting a playoff
series tomorrow.
The Red Sox finished second in the league in batting and third in ERA,
yet they are not one of the final four in the American League. They were
40-17 June 6, but went 53-52 the rest of the way. Playing one game over
.500 over the final 105 games generally takes you out of October ball.
Yesterday was the last day of school at Fenway Regional High. It was
sort of a free-form, dress-down Sunday. There was no batting practice.
Players showed up when they felt like it. Ramirez had his biggest hair of
the year. Coaches lobbied with reporters to keep their jobs. Little kids
did play-by-play on TV. The Sox and D-Rays rattled 27 hits around the yard
in an 11-8 Sox win that had more lead changes than a Bird-Magic playoff
game.
Sox stars enjoyed curtain calls between innings late in the day and
when it was over the players and owners fired baseballs into the stands
for loyalists who hung around when most New England sports fans were in
front of TVs waiting for the Patriots kickoff.
For reasons no one could quite fathom, the Sox presented Rickey
Henderson with a T-Bird before the game. Rickey took a victory lap in the
car, which wasn't easy considering the number of fans, singers,
hangers-on, first-ball tossers, jugglers, and award-winners who littered
the field. The We-Are-The-World-Sox have more fans on the field before the
game than the Devil Rays have at home games.
True to the finish, Grady Little kept Manny out of the lineup
yesterday. Manny had a nine-point lead in the batting race, which means he
almost couldn't lose it, but Little wasn't taking any chances. Surely,
Teddy Ballgame was spinning in his liquid nitrogen tank when he heard this
one. Just Grady being Grady.
Manny pinch hit in the seventh and walked to finish at .349.
Early yesterday, when boxes were being packed in the clubhouse, Little
spoke of 15 or 20 ''crushing losses.'' We all remember the night Terrence
Long pulled Ramirez's would-be homer out of the bullpen. Then there were
the back-to-back nutcracker one-run losses in Yankee Stadium. And the
night the bullpen gave it up against mighty Tampa Bay.
The manager said, ''I'm satisfied with our season, but disappointed we
didn't take it further.''
What would he do differently?
''There were so many things out of our control,'' he said. ''With a
chance to do it over, we'd have a little more say in a lot of different
areas.''
Little was too easy on the fellas, no doubt. He let the potential
strike become too much of a distraction. But he won 93 games as a rookie
manager and definitely deserves a fresh start in February and his own
staff.
The high point of the 2002 Sox season probably was Derek Lowe's
no-hitter at Fenway, or perhaps Shea Hillenbrand's homer off Mariano
Rivera. The low moment forever will be Ramirez's disgrace in the batter's
box in Tampa.
Oh, one more thing. Remember Joe Kerrigan - tall guy with red hair who
talks about arm slots? The Sox are still waiting for the Nutty One to
return the car they let him use in spring training. When Kerrigan was
fired, he drove out of Fort Myers in the black Lincoln Town Car the club
had supplied. The Sox haven't seen Joe or the car since February.
''I called him about it in June,'' said interim GM Mike Port. ''But
nothing's happened in that area. Maybe I'll give him another call about it
this week.''
Port knows. Grady, Manny, Nomar, Pedro ... they all know: Nobody gets a
free ride when they work for the Red Sox.
This story ran on page D6 of the Boston Globe on 9/30/2002.
Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.