Five personally defining moments in Red Sox history
By Rick McNair
The history of the Boston Red Sox is littered with good and bad memories that have defined the team. Here are my five defining moments.
The Red Sox are not unique in baseball nor in baseball history for unfortunate trades, player disappointments, injuries, and free agency expenditures that went bust. What would Tony Conigliaro have accomplished if that rising fastball nicked his shoulder? Or the medical science of the present could have repaired Smoky Joe Wood’s extraordinary right arm?
The tragic – from the Boston perspective – of selling the most valuable property to the Yankees have altered history with a no sale instead? And it was not just Babe Ruth as the exodus from Boston to New York provided the core of great Yankee teams and the impetus for Yankee dominance for decades.
Should Jeff Bagwell be wearing a Boston beanie in the Baseball Hall of Fame? What would have happened if Dave Stapleton had been inserted for Bill Buckner? If Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball had a bit more bite or the wind was blowing in on Bucky Dent‘s lazy fly ball? Or if Jim Lonborg had four days rest instead of two?
The above all circulate around players. The glory of speculation and the “what if?” that provides an alternate history for the disenchanted, frustrated, and those who wallow in speculation. Does it also go both ways such as what if Dave Roberts‘s historic slide missed the bag? The following is my recollection either via Red Sox’s history or personal experience on defining Red Sox moments that are not necessarily linked to players. They are, however, steeped in the negative with a touch of the positive.