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A Decade of Red Sox Baseball

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As we turn the calendar to the year 2020 another decade of Red Sox baseball comes to an end and enters the history books. What better time, then, for RSNStats to look back on a solid ten years of Red Sox achievements and milestones since that first pitch of the 2010 campaign. Let’s start out pretty broad and then we’ll work our way down to some of the more interesting particulars.

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Ken “Hawk” Harrelson goes to Hall of Fame

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One-time Red Sox player and broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson has made it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. On Wednesday Harrelson was named 2020 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, which recognizes excellence in baseball broadcasting. Harrelson, 78, retired after the 2018 season having spent 33 years as the voice of White Sox television.

Harrelson played nine big league seasons starting in 1963 with the Kansas City Athletics. As a free agent in 1967 he signed with the Red Sox and homered against the Yankees in his first Sox plate appearance. In his following All-Star season Harrelson became the sixth Boston player to homer three times in a game, and the first for the club to do it in consecutive plate appearances.

Boston traded Harrelson to the Indians early in 1969 as part of a package that yielded Joe Azcue, Vicente Romo and Sonny Siebert.

Into the Broadcast Booth

After his playing days Harrelson transitioned to broadcasting, returning to Boston from 1975 to 1981 for Sox coverage on WSBK-TV 38. He went on to cover the White Sox (1982-85), spent a tumultuous 1986 season as General Manager of the Pale Hose (during which time he fired both manager Tony La Russa and assistant general manager Dave Dombrowski), before getting back behind the mic for the Yankees (1987-88). He returned to Chicago to stay in 1990 for televised play-by-play duties.

Harrelson is the 44th winner of the Frick Award. In the Hall of Fame he’ll be in the company of former White Sox broadcasters Jack Brickhouse (1983), Harry Caray (1989), Bob Elson (1979) and Milo Hamilton (1992). Harrelson joins Joe Garagiola (1991), Bob Uecker (2003), Jerry Coleman (2005), Tony Kubek (2009) and Tim McCarver (2012) as the only former Major League ballplayers to win the Frick Award.

Current Red Sox radio voice, Joe Castiglione, was also nominated for this year’s award.


Bogaerts, Betts selected to 2019 All-MLB Team

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Red Sox Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts were named Tuesday to the first-ever All-MLB team, which consists of the top 32 Major League players, regardless of league and broken up into First and Second teams. Bogaerts was named the First-Team shortstop and Betts was named a Second-Team outfielder.

Selection to the All-MLB team was a 50/50 split vote of fans and a panel of baseball experts selected by Major League Baseball. Nominees were selected by merit, with no set number of nominees per position.

Speaking after the announcement of his selection Bogaerts thanked manager Alex Cora and the coaching staff: “We had a lot of guys on our team that were capable of being on that list,” Bogaerts said. “Obviously, we’re thankful for the coaching staff and manager. Alex has impacted us in a big way.”

Bogaerts said the honor, which recognizes a full season’s worth of work, was welcomed. “This is nice to be rewarded for the whole season, instead of just half-way through the season with the All-Star Game.”

All Honorees

First-Team honorees: J.T. Realmuto, C; Pete Alonso, 1B; DJ LeMahieu, 2B; Bogaerts SS; Anthony Rendon, 3B; Nelson Cruz, DH; Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich, OF. Pitchers: Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg, Kirby Yates, and Josh Hader.

Second-Team honorees: Yasmani Grandal, C; Freddie Freeman, 1B; Jose Altuve, 2B; Alex Bregman, 3B; Marcus Semien, SS; Yordan Alvarez, DH; Ronald Acuna Jr., Juan Soto and Betts, OF. Pitchers Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Jack Flaherty, Charlie Morton, Mike Soroka, Aroldis Chapmanb, and Liam Hendriks.


Red Sox open Florida ticket counter for Spring Training

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It’s still early in the off-season, but so far the Red Sox have been mostly quiet as the rest of the teams around baseball are making deals. It seems unlikely Red Sox Nation won’t be jolted by a big move some time soon, though, as new baseball chief Chaim Bloom looks to make his mark on a team that needs more than a tweak.

And though the hot stove is only lukewarm right now, the Red Sox ticket office is ready for those sunny, warm spring days of Lee County, Florida. Spring training tickets for 2020 go on sale Saturday, December 7, at JetBlue Park at Fenway South and also online at the team web site. It will be the ninth season for the club at JetBlue Park, which kicks off with an Open House there on Saturday, February 15th that’s free and open to the public.

In all, the Red Sox will play 18 home games in Florida next year, 17 of which will be part of Grapefruit League action, along with the traditional spring opener against the Northeastern University Huskies. Refer to the full spring training schedule to plot your getaway from the winter cold.

Key dates leading up to the start of the season are always counting down in the margins here at the RSNStats.com web site.

Now, a couple odds-n-ends of interest to Red Sox Nation:

  • Sandy León posted a heartfelt thank you to his former team and Red Sox Nation on Friday. “You guys are the best!” León said of the fans, “Thank you for every encouraging word during each game. Thank you for showing what true passion for a club is.” The Sox traded León to the Indians for a minor leaguer earlier this week.
  • The world champion Washington Nationals split a pool of more than $29.1 million this season, while the Houston Astros divvied up $19.4 million. After the pool was cut into equal-sized shares by the players, the Nationals awarded 61 full shares, a handful of partial shares, and some cash awards making each full share worth a cool $382,358.18. The Astros split their pool 57 ways and likewise issued some partial shares and cash awards making each full share worth $256,030.16. By comparison, full shares last season were worth $416,837.72 and $262,027.49 for the Red Sox and Dodgers, respectively.

    Overall, the pool of proceeds derives from formula that rakes the combined gate receipts from specific postseason games and apportions them depending on how far a team progresses past the regular season. With each progression, the team’s pool gets larger, culminating in the largest pool for the teams that make it all the way to the Fall Classic. At the lowest rungs this season were the Athletics and Brewers, who were eliminated after their Wild Card game. They split pools of about $1.2 million each.
  • The Red Sox have been awarded the 2019 “Allan H. Selig Award for Philanthropic Excellence” from Major League Baseball in recognition of the club’s Home Base program. Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner and the Red Sox Foundation led the creation of Home Base in 2007, which supports service men and women in making a successful transition post-military service. Boston is the only team to have won the award more than once since its inception in 2010, when the Red Sox were honored for developing the Red Sox Scholars program.
  • Sox Vice President of Pitching Development (and assistant pitching coach) Brian Bannister is the new director of pitching for the Giants. Bannister confirmed the move himself with a thank you message to Sox ownership that he posted to Twitter. Bannister’s family lives in the Bay Area, so the move will afford him far greater time being closer to home.
  • The Red Sox are actively promoting the idea of another All-Star Game at Fenway Park. Team CEO Sam Kennedy says, “We need to work and figure out a time that would work for the convention centers, but we’ve told MLB that we would like to host,” according to this report. The last All-Star Game at Fenway was the memorable 1999 affair that starred Ted Williams. Two National League parks, Dodger Stadium and Atlanta’s SunTrust Park, will be the venues for the 2020 and 2021 Mid-Summer Classics, respectively.


Papi, Manny headline newest members of Sox Hall of Fame

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The Red Sox announced that David Ortiz, Manny Ramírez, Rich Gedman and Bill Dinneen will be 2020 Red Sox Hall of Fame inductees. Former Sox General Manager Dan Duquette will also be honored as a non-uniformed inductee.

For Red Sox Nation, Ortiz’ selection to the team Hall of Fame can hardly come as a surprise after 14 memorable seasons (2003-16) in a Red Sox uniform. Ortiz is the franchise’s only three-time World Series champion in the post-World War I era (2004, 2007 and 2013) and recognized as the club’s all-time greatest clutch hitter. Big Papi, whose Number 34 was retired in 2017, won the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award eight times and is one of just five players with as many as 10 seasons with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI for a single team, joining Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron, and Albert Pujols.

For a generation of fans, “Manny being Manny” meant a whole lot of theatrics and a whole lot of heroics, too. An All-Star in each of his eight seasons with the Sox (2001-08), Ramírez starred in two Sox World Series runs, ending up MVP in the 2004 Fall Classic. His (and Wade Boggs‘) six Silver Slugger Awards are second-most in club history after Ortiz, who earned seven. Ramírez’ 10 straight games with an RBI in September 2002 is tied for fourth-longest such streak in club history, and was the most since Ted Williams had 11 such games in 1950.

Rich Gedman signed with Boston as a non-drafted free agent in 1977 and two years later led all International League catchers in assists and double plays at Triple-A Pawtucket. He went on to play 13 major league seasons with the Red Sox (1980-90), earning two All-Star selections in that time. Gedman was catcher during Boston’s American League pennant run in 1986, a season that including setting set an American League record for putouts by a catcher (20) as Roger Clemens struck out 20 Mariners on April 29th. The next day Gedman recorded 16 more putouts, the most ever by a catcher in consecutive games (36). Even today Gedman ranks fourth in club history for games caught (858). Since 2011 Gedman has been a hitting coach in the club’s minor league system.

First World Series Winner

Bill Dinneen won’t be a name familiar to modern day Sox fans, but his impact on the early days of the club’s history his undeniable. Dinneen played six seasons in Boston (1902-07), and pitched four complete games in the first World Series in 1903, going 3-1 with a 3.01 ERA. It was Dinneen who earning the clinching victory over the Pirates in Game 8 at Huntington Avenue Grounds, marking the first World Series championship in Red Sox franchise history. To this day, Dinneen ranks second in team history for complete games (156) and eighth for ERA (2.81). After his retirement as a player, Dinneen became an umpire for the next 28 seasons, ultimately becoming the first person to play in a World Series and umpire in the Fall Classic.

Dan Duquette was the Sox GM for eight seasons (1994-2001), a period that included three postseason appearances for Boston and the first back-to-back postseason season appearances (1998 and 1999) since 1915-16. It was Duquette deals that brought Ramírez as well as Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Nomar Garciaparra, Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek to Boston.

Growing Hall

The Red Sox Hall of Fame opened in 1995 to recognize the outstanding careers of former Red Sox players and managers. To be eligible for election by the 21-member nominating committee, candidates must have spent at least three years with the team and must also have been out of uniform as an active player/manager at least three years.

With the newest inductees, there will be 110 members of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, 36 of whom are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2020 will be honored at a gala event on April 30, 2020.