Alright, last week's column delved a little into my moral and ethical side. That's enough of that.
Last week, I had the pleasure of going to a sit down dinner with Sr. PGA golfer Jim Thorpe, much like the Don Shula dinner a couple of months back. On the Super Bowl, I'm going back to meet Ken Stabler at a buffet with more square feet of TV screens than I can even imagine. I'll bring the camera, I promise.
The Jim Thorpe dinner was nice, I was quite happy to meet him, and two of his special guests, Ernie DiGregorio of PC Friars and Boston Celtics fame, and "El Tiante", Luis Tiant, a man that I rank among the top five pitchers to ever wear a Boston Red Sox uniform (more on that later).
Thorpe was leading the dinner in order to promote his affiliation with Foxwoods' new golf course, which is absolutely spectacular, at least judging from the sketches. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with any of the people at the dinner, but I was able to get autographs from Thorpe and Tiant, and even better, I got to play craps with Luis later that night.
Sometime soon, I will put up all of my sports stuff behind my bar at home, as soon as I get the bar itself.
As I was saying, I consider Luis Tiant to be one of the top five Red Sox pitchers ever, placing him behind Cy Young, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and Curt Schilling. I realize that Schilling hasn't thrown a pitch yet, but I'm ranking these guys on career achievements. Even Tiant wasn't a lifelong Red Sox player. Neither are Pedro or Clemens.
As for the All-Time great Sox players, well, it's quite a list. I'm going to try and rank my top players at each position, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it justice. My knowledge of older players isn't what it used to be, especially since I haven't been able to talk baseball with one of my friends, The Irvdawg, for so long. Seriously, he watches more classic sports than every other person I've ever met, combined. As for my list, here goes:
P: Cy Young - No brainer, hell, the award that defines all other pitchers yearly is named for him. 'Nuff said.
C:
1B: Not a whole big crew to choose from here, but I have to choose Mo Vaughn. He meant a lot not only to the team, but the community as a whole. He won the AL MVP playing with the Red Sox, and had they paid more attention to him over Bernie Williams in his free agent season, he probably would have finished his career with
2B: Again, not many dominant second baseman in Red Sox history, but I'll take Jody Reed, if only because I got to watch him play while I was growing up, and I remember him and Marty Barrett sharing time at second, but Reed was far superior. He was solid defensively, and while he may not have added much with the bat, not many in that position do. I'd like to include Bobby Doerr, but he was too far before my time.
SS: Gee, wonder who I'm going to take here. Nomar by a landslide, although If I was a bit older, I would have to give Johnny Pesky a lot more consideration. Nomar will eventually go down as one of the best shortstops ever, behind Ripken, A-Rod, Ozzie Smith and perhaps a couple of others, but he will probably be one of the top 10 shortstops ever.
3B: Wade Boggs - Narrowly inches out Jimmy Foxx, but Wade Boggs just dominated his position in the 80's. How many batting titles did this guy win in his career? No hitter used the Monster better during Boggs' time with the Sox. Such a shame he went to the Yanks to get his ring. And who can forget his memorable 3000th hit as a member of the (yikes!) Devil Rays?! Well, when he deservedly gets into the Hall, he'll have a big "B" on his head.
OF - Ted Williams, Carl Yastrezmski, and Dwight Evans - The first two are absolutely unquestionable, but Evans took a little work. I'd love to put Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Ellis Burks, or even Manny Ramirez in this slot, but damn Dewey was good. I'd venture a guess that if he were playing in his prime today, he'd be competing for the batting title every year, and he'd be mentioned in the same sentence as Ichiro, Vlad, and Jose Guillen for the best arm in baseball. When he was in his prime, you just didn't hit a ball at Dewey unless you wanted to stand at first base for awhile.
So that's it. That's my top Sox team of all time. If we wanted to add closers, I'd put in Eckersley, Lee Smith and Jeff Reardon, all three of whom held the All-Time saves lead at one time or another in their careers. As for my starting rotation, it's above. I suppose we could include some guy named Ruth as a spot starter or a DH....
FOOTBALL
Yeah, I'll admit it. I'm on a roll in the playoffs, and I really wish I'd still been playing this past week. I'll take a 3-1 week anytime. I'm 6-2 for the playoffs, with three games remaining. This week is looking pretty tough though, especially with only two games. Man, I'm gonna be bored until baseball starts again. Might even have to start writing about hock... Anyway, this week's picks.
EAGLES (-4) over Panthers: Both teams won in OT last week, and both had some serious drama leading up to their wins. I mean 4th and 26?! What the hell is that? Well, I picked Philly in the beginning; I'm picking them in the end. But if they don't figure out how to stop the run, and fast, this game could get out of hand.
PATRIOTS (-3) over Colts: I've got a bad feeling about this game. Peyton Manning is playing like a man possessed, but I think the Pats, and Bill Belichick in particular can figure out a way to stop him. They're going to have to disguise their defenses a lot though, or else Manning will change the play to match the scheme, and he'll pass all over them. BEWARE THE BIG-PLAY... Still think the Pats win and cover though. So, like I said in August, Pats/Eagles in
See you next week....
posted by Big D @ 12:00 AM
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