Boston Red Sox batting champions All-Star team montage
Batting champions are no rarity for the Red Sox and an All-Star team can be created for each position from the winner’s pool.
Batting champions are certainly not a rarity for the Boston Red Sox nor are multiple winners. The quaint dimensions of Fenway Park certainly offer advantages to hitters, especially the lack of foul territory. Despite playing in Fenway since 1912, it took until 1938 for a Red Sox player to win a batting championship. Then they made up for the lost time.
Since that 1938 season, the team has had twelve batting champions that have accumulated 25 titles. Developing an All-Star team of the champions requires some hard decisions such as leaving a talented Billy Goodman and Bill Mueller off the team. There were better options.
The most difficult is pitching since very few pitchers win batting titles. One pitcher was Babe Ruth but he won his batting title with another team – the name escapes me. Another was Lefty O’Doul who did nothing as a lefty hurler but won two batting titles when he concentrated on hitting and not pitching. Alas, those titles were won in the National League.
The last position to find a title is catcher since catchers are quite absent from batting championships with recently retired Joe Mauer the only victor in the AL. Mauer won three as a Twin. Lumbering Ernie Lombardi won a pair in the NL and some credit Bubbles Hargrave as the first grabbing a crown in 1926. But Boston did have a champion who played catcher briefly and was one of the greatest home run hitters of all time. On with the list.
First Base
Just about every batting record of the Red Sox has the name Carl Yastrzemski attached. Yaz made his mark as a left fielder and did not move to first base until later in his 23-season MLB career, all with Boston.
Yaz first appeared at first base for just three games in the 1968 season when he won the last of his three batting titles with a .301 average. That was the notorious year of the pitcher and Yaz was the only .300 hitter in the AL. The season before, Yastrzemski had the Triple Crown and the Red Sox had a pennant.
Yastrzemski played 765 games at first base and never won a Gold Glove Award for his defense at the bag but certainly had a substantial collection playing left field.
Yastrzemski’s career numbers are staggering with 452 home runs, 1844 RBI, and a .285 career average. His first title was with a .321 average in 1963. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Second Base
Pete Runnels played just five seasons with the Red Sox but later became a coach and a short-term manager to fill out the season. He won two batting titles with the Red Sox with the first in 1960 when Runnels – a line drive hitting lefty – batted .320. That season Runnels played second base for 129 games but also filled in at first base. The previous season, Runnels had hit a solid .314 to finish second in the batting race.
Runnels’s next title was 1962 when he hit .326 and his reward was being traded to his native Texas and Houston for Roman Mejias. Runnels did little with Houston hitting a mere .253 and after slumping further in 1964 was gone.
Runnels was one of my favorite hitters and just made for Fenway Park hitting .332. For his Red Sox career, the lack of power shows with just 29 home runs and 249 RBI and that previously mentioned .320 average. Runnels makes the second sack thanks to his bat and not his glove.
I had mentioned Goodman who was the Brock Holt of the 1950s for the Red Sox. Goodman won his title in 1950 with a .354 average and just 45 innings at second base. Goodman – a left-handed hitter – had even less power than Runnels hitting just 19 home runs in a 16-year career.
Third Base
Wade Boggs was far from my favorite player when he was winning five batting titles for the Red Sox in the 1980s. But give Boggs credit in that he worked at hitting and worked harder to make himself less of a defensive liability at third base. Boggs eventually won two Gold Glove Awards when he was with the New York Yankees.
In Boggs’ 1982 rookie season he hit .349 and made another third baseman and batting champion Carney Lansford expendable Lansford had hit .336 in the strike-shortened 1981 season to capture the title but Boggs had to wait until 1983 when he hit .361 to win his first.
Boggs’ left-handed swing was just a doubles delight at Fenway Park where Boggs hit a career .369 and 292 of his career 578 two-baggers. For his Red Sox career, Boggs hit .338 with 85 home runs and 687 RBI. An eight-time All-Star in his 11 Boston years with over twice the number of walks (1004) as strikeouts (470). A career .328 hitter with 3010 hits and a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Shortstop
What could have been with less injury and possibly a tad less disruption? Nomar Garciaparra broke on the Boston baseball scene with a Rookie of the Year Award after hitting.306 with 30 home runs. A dependable glove, but not a great glove, but the hitting was something special from the lightning-quick bat of Garciaparra.
Nomar had back-to-back titles in 1999-2000 hitting .357 and .372. Garciaparra also topped 100 RBI four times in Boston and made five All-Star teams. For his nine seasons in Boston, Garciaparra hit .323 with 178 home runs and 670 RBI.
The end for Nomar came in 2004 with a combination of declining performance – which may have been injury-related – and disgruntled over his contract situation. The Red Sox traded him to the Chicago Cubs to solidify the shortstop position defensively and the result was positive – the shattering of “The Curse.”
Nomar’s career continued to go down the rabbit hole before he retired in 2009. For his first half-dozen seasons in Boston, this was a player headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Catcher
The first batting champion for the Red Sox was a beast since that was the aptly applied nickname to right-hand slugger Jimmie Foxx. Foxx was essentially purchased from the cash strapped A’s and was recognized along with Hank Greenberg as the premier right-hand sluggers of the AL.
Foxx bagged his title in 1938 with a .349 average that also had a league-best 175 RBI and 50 home runs. Greenberg’s 58 home runs kept Foxx from the Triple Crown, but not his third MVP Award. In 1939, Foxx made up for the home run title by leading the AL with 35. For Foxx’s seven Boston seasons the batting average was .320 with 222 home runs and 788 RBI, but what about the catching?
Foxx started out as a catcher with the A’s before being shifted to the outfield and finally first base, but he never completely was absent from behind the plate. In 1940, Foxx caught 42 games for the Red Sox among his 108 career games behind the plate.
By the early 1940s, Foxx’s skills were rapidly eroding with the help of too much booze as a catalyst, but Double X stayed on through the player shortage of World War II.
Outfielders
Six batting titles, a lifetime .344 average, 521 career home runs, and the last .400 hitter and you have Teddy Ballgame or Ted Williams. The last batting title was 1958 when Williams hit .328 and that was a 60 point drop from his .388 title in 1957. A magnificent pre-hitter who was a scientist with hitting – an Albert Einstein with a Louisville Slugger.
A Rookie of the Year Award, a Most Valuable Player Award, and a Gold Glove Award is a nice way to start your career and that was the smooth sailing Fred Lynn. The lefty won his only title in 1979 hitting .333 and hitting a career-best 39 home runs and 122 RBI. Lynn stayed in Boston for seven seasons hitting .308 with 124 home runs and 521 RBI.
Mookie Betts finished his six-year Boston career with a .301 average that was inflated by his .346 title in his 2018 MVP season. Arguably the best five-tool player in franchise history with 139 home runs and 470 RBI in his Red Sox stint. Gone but not forgotten.
Designated Hitter
Manny being Manny is now part of not only the local but national lexicon. Manny Ramirez teamed with David Ortiz to form one of the most potent duos in baseball. Considering the Red Sox attempted to dump his ponderous contract to anyone willing to accept it is a reflection of how the new ownership viewed Manny and his paycheck. Thankfully he stayed.
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The hard numbers are exceptional in Manny’s eight Boston seasons – .312 average, 274 home runs, 868 RBI, and a batting title in 2002 with a .349 average. Petulant, disruptive, entertaining, emotional Manny became a fan favorite who finally needed a divorce from the team.
My favorite Manny Moment occurred the day he received his citizenship as Manny ran out to left field waving a small American Flag. Of course, they are many tales regarding Manny that are somewhere between the truth and fiction, but his stay was certainly the stuff that will be passed down.
If I had to find a place for Rameriz it would be DH since I doubt even Teddy Ballgame could match Manny’s fielding liabilities.
Pitcher
A 25-14 record and a 10.6 bWAR tells part of the 1935 season for right-handed Wes Ferrell. Ferrell played 15 seasons in the majors and four in Boston compiling a 193-128 career record and 62-40 for the Red Sox. Ferrell teamed with his brother Rick Ferrell as his catcher. But then there is his hitting. In 1935, that .347 was the highest average among American League pitchers and that was not unusual as Wes was generally in the top three with Red Ruffing and Schoolboy Rowe.
In 1935, Ferrell slammed seven home runs with 32 RBI. In four seasons Ferrell – often used as a pinch hitter – hit .308 for the Red Sox with 17 home runs. Brother Rick hit a career .281 in his 18-year career and made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Wes has not. The real batting champion for the AL in 1935 was a former Red Sox infielder Buddy Myer, so I have to do some creative manipulation as with Double X.
Wes was a .280 career hitter with 38 home runs compared to just 28 for brother Rick. Was Wes the best hitting pitcher of all time? Possibly. Ferrell set the career home run record for pitchers and the single-season record of nine in 1931. A six-time 20 game-winner – two with the Red Sox.
Next. Debate: Nomar Garciaparra vs. Derek Jeter. dark
Wes continued his professional career in the minors and hit 24 home runs in D-ball in 1948 playing the outfield with limited pitching duty. All as a 40-year-old.