My favorite Boston Red Sox players all-time at each position

Boston Red Sox David Ortiz (R) is congratulated his solo homer by teammate Manny Ramirez in the top of the first innings against Japan's Hanshin Tigers in an exhibition game in the Tokyo Dome on March 22, 2008.The Boston Red Sox managed a narrow 6-5 victory against Tigers in an exhibition game here, days ahead of the official season opening games against the Oakland Athletics. AFP PHOTO / KAZUHIRO NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)
Boston Red Sox David Ortiz (R) is congratulated his solo homer by teammate Manny Ramirez in the top of the first innings against Japan's Hanshin Tigers in an exhibition game in the Tokyo Dome on March 22, 2008.The Boston Red Sox managed a narrow 6-5 victory against Tigers in an exhibition game here, days ahead of the official season opening games against the Oakland Athletics. AFP PHOTO / KAZUHIRO NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /

An All-Star squad of my personal favorite players at each position who have worn a Boston Red Sox uniform during my lifetime.

The history of the Boston Red Sox is loaded at virtually every position but everyone has their favorites.

There’s an important distinction between best and favorite. A statistical analysis can provide us with a fairly definitive answer for who the best players are. There may be some debate with different people favoring certain statistics over others but we can generally narrow it to at least a small pool of candidates.

Naming your favorite players is more subjective. Ted Williams is objectively the best position player in franchise history but his heyday was before my parents were born. Clearly, I never had the chance to see the Splendid Splinter perform live so I can’t count him among my favorites.

My list might be drastically different from yours since it’s influenced by the period that I grew up in. While I have some lingering memories from the late-80s, my love for the games grew during the 90s when I was an avid collector of baseball cards and exploded shortly after the turn of the century when the Red Sox started winning championships.

Younger fans who don’t know the pain of Boston’s long championship drought would probably stick to players from the most recent decades since they grew up watching them win World Series titles. Older fans have a more extensive catalog of memories to draw from and would therefore have more variance in their list.

This is my list based on the opinions I’ve formed over the last three-plus decades.