Boston Red Sox Memories: My all decade 1950’s Red Sox team
By Rick McNair
The baseball season has stalled so it is time to keep the Boston Red Sox interest ball rolling. For me, it is a trip back in time to the 1950s and my all-decade team.
The decade may have started in 1951, but for me, it was 1953 when I started to follow the team. I limit my team to players I have seen play so Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Walt Dropo, and a few others have to be omitted.
The entire decade represented a decline from the tumultuous 1946-50 years when the Red Sox won one pennant, lost out on a potential subway series with a one-game playoff loss to the Indians, and a few close but no cigar losses to the (who else) New York Yankees. By 1951 the team was in decline.
The Red Sox played out the 1950s as a good, but not a great team. Usually in the middle of the pack with the only real interest being generated by individual success or being that rare spoiler. The most notable spoiler role came in 1959 when the Yankees were beaten by the White Sox with the Red Sox bombing the bombers at Fenway Park by sweeping a five-game series.
his was baseball’s last real traditional decade as expansion would take place and franchise movement was going full-bore with the Boston Braves were the first team to pull up the tent and move elsewhere since 1902. Others soon followed with the Dodgers and Giants finally making MLB a coast to coast game.
The following players are those that stand out from my memories. A few had great careers, a few good careers, and a few rather forgettable careers. For the older fans some names from the past to jar memories and for the younger fans names they heard spoken with reverence or disdain.