Red Sox Round Table: One moment in team history that you would change

The Boston Red Sox have been a franchise since 1901, and it’s safe to say over time that they ‘ve made some blunders. What’s one that you’d change?

As card-carrying members of Red Sox Nation, we’ve been witness to some great and not so great moments in team history. There have been the highs of the countless division titles and especially the World Series trophies that have made their home at Fenway as of late. But there have also been the lows of coming so close to grabbing the brass ring just to slip on the banana peel.

We recently asked our staff to hop in their Wayback Machines to take a trip back through the 119-year history of the team and pick a moment they’d change if they had the power. As our team combed through the history books, watched countless hours of film, and racked up thousands of dollars in therapy bills, we were able to narrow it down to a few select choices.

The nice thing about loving a team that’s been around for so long is it gives you plenty of memories to choose from. Again, many of them may be awful, but many may be great. Luckily for us, the Red Sox have a laundry list of poor decisions that we could choose from.

Now that I have all of the boring stuff out of the way, let’s get miserable!

Red Sox sell Babe Ruth

The Red Sox won three championships with Babe Ruth, who was primarily a starting pitcher in those days. His prolific power started to emerge in his final years with the franchise as his plate appearances increased but it wasn’t until the Yankees converted him to an everyday position player that his bat began shattering the record books.

Red Sox owner Harry Frazee wanted to wash his hands of Ruth due to concerns about his temper as well as his bad habits of smoking and drinking which showed he wasn’t taking great care of his conditioning. He claimed the money from selling his superstar would be reinvested into the team to improve the depth of the roster but in reality, Frazee needed the money to finance one of his Broadway plays.

So Ruth was sold to the Yankees for $100,000 (a significant sum in those days) and the rest is history. The Yankees piled up championships as Ruth established himself as arguably the greatest player in MLB history while the Red Sox suffered through an 86-year drought that would be blamed on the Curse of the Bambino.

-BSI Site Expert, Sean Penney

Red Sox fire Terry Francona

This one is tough because I have a few rules. First, I wanted to pick something I’ve been around for. Second, I wanted it to be something that actually hurt the team. It would be great to say they shouldn’t have traded Nomar Garciaparra. If he stayed healthy he would’ve been one of the greatest players ever. He didn’t stay healthy though, and the immediate aftermath to trading him was winning a World Series.

So I’m going with Terry Francona‘s firing. Boston won another World Series shortly after he left. However, they had a year of Bobby Valentine (oh dear lord that was terrible). Then after one great year with John Farrell, there were ups-and-downs. And big ones too.

It looked like the Red Sox found their answer with Alex Cora. Now that’s very uncertain though. Wouldn’t it be great to have the steady hand of Francona still managing the team? The players loved him, the fans loved him and he won games. It’s not hard to imagine Boston still would have won their two World Series rings since he left too, as he definitely isn’t hurting a team.

If Cora was still here, maybe this answer would be different. He might not return though, and having Francona would give fans a lot of reasons to believe. Dustin Pedroia would probably love all those extra Cribbage games too.

-BSI Contributor, Hunter Knoll

John McNamara mismanages Sox in ’86

For me, I’d go back and have John McNamara manage the 1986 World Series differently. After going back and re-watching all seven games, it’s clear that the series wasn’t lost in Game Six or Game Seven, but in Game Four.

After effectively going with a three-man rotation in the ALCS, McNamara managed to not lose (instead of managing to win) when he went with Al Nipper as his Game Four starter over Bruce Hurst on three days rest. His rationale was that if the series went seven games, he’d have Hurst, Roger Clemens, and Oil Can Boyd for the last three. Meanwhile, the Mets went with a three-man rotation and it worked for them.

It ended up being disastrous for the Sox. After winning the first two games in New York, they lost Game Three at home (Boyd’s start). Ok, no problem…the Mets had won 108 games that season and probably weren’t going to get swept. But the Red Sox had two more games at Fenway Park and the chance to step on the Mets’ throats and take a commanding 3-1 series lead in Game Four.

Instead, McNamara went with Nipper who hadn’t pitched in 17 days and who had been mediocre during the season (10-12, 5.38 ERA). The Sox lost the game, letting the Mets tie the series and get back fully into it.

Yes, the Sox won Game Five and should have won in Game Six (again, awful McNamara managerial decisions…removing Clemens, leaving Buckner in, etc)…but I’d go back and go for broke in Game Four to put the Mets away instead of managing not to lose.

-BSI Contributor, Drew Athans

Red Sox extend Chris Sale too soon

I’ll go with a more recent one: Extending Chris Sale after the 2018 season was a huge mistake that can be argued as a large part of the reason why Mookie Betts was traded. The team wanted to cut payroll and that’s fair, but they likely wouldn’t have needed to trade Betts if they just waited until after 2019 to decide what to do with Sale.

The fact that they went with the injury-prone pitcher over a five-tool superstar is mind-blowing. I understand wanting Sale around for the long haul after ’17/’18 but there were red flags during those seasons as well and it was irresponsible to extend him early.

I also get that Betts was always going to hit the FA market, but the team would have been put in a better position to lock him up long term if they hadn’t already paid Sale.

Not only is Sale taking up a large portion of the Sox payroll for the foreseeable future, but we don’t actually know if he’ll ever be the ace he once was upon returning from TJ. You can argue that he wasn’t as good last year because of nagging injuries but it seems like every year there is something wrong with him physically anyways.

-BSI Contributor, Max Bozicas