100 Greatest Red Sox >> #40 George Scott

George “The Boomer” Scott, 1B, #5, 15 (1966-1971, 1977-1979)

1192 G, 1088 H, 154 HR, 562 RBI, .257 Avg, .324 OBP, .421 SLG, All-Star (1966, 1977)

Born George Charles Scott, March 23rd, 1944, the “Boomer”, as he became known, signed as an amateur free agent with the Red Sox in 1962. Growing up on a farm in Greenville, MS, Scott played three sports, baseball, football, and basketball. Scott claims to have been recruited by John Wooden at UCLA, but signed with the Red Sox in lieu of a basketball career. His minor league playing days were spent most productively in Pittsfield of the Eastern League, where the Red Sox had their AA team. In 1965 he became the third Triple Crown winner in the history of the Eastern League while leading his team to that year’s pennant.

In 1966 he was promoted to the big league ball club, where he played in every single one of the Sox’ games and led the league in strikeouts, with 152. He was the starting first baseman for the AL All-Star team, just the second rookie to cop that honor. The right-handed Boomer quickly became one of the most popular fixtures in the city along with one of the slickest fielding first-sackers of all time, relying on his favorite glove, which he named “Black Beauty”.

An integral part of the “Impossible Dream” squad of 1967, Scott was renowned for his defensive wizardry, his physical presence, his buoyant personality and free spirit, and, later in his career, his Fu Manchu (this came during his stay in Milwaukee; facial hair was banned by Sox’ manager Dick Williams in the late ‘60s). Williams, in fact, said that “talking to Scott was like talking to cement”, such was the mercurial nature of his personality. The Boomer also popularized the term “tater”, referring to tape-measure home runs, while with the Sox. Scott won Gold Gloves in 1967 and 1968 and finished 10th in the MVP balloting in ‘67, but his power output dropped sunk in 1968 (from 19hr/82rbi/.839ops in ’67 to 3/25/.437 in ’68) and he never matched the production of his first two seasons with the Sox; this hastened Scott’s initial departure from the Sox.

In December of 1971, after another injury-filled season in 1970 (in which Scott missed 36 games) and a 1971 season in which he played 146 games but saw little rebound in his power numbers (he did win his third Gold Glove in five years), Scott was shipped to the Milwaukee Brewers in a massive eleven player deal, the focal point for the Sox being Tommy Harper. Harper, a speedy outfielder and accomplished base-stealer, came to Boston (along with several others) in return for the Boomer, Billy Conigliaro, Ken Brett, Joe Lahoud, Don Pavletitch, and Jim Lonborg. During his time in Milwaukee Scott returned to form with thunder (even stealing a career-high 16 bases in 1972!), winning Gold Gloves in five consecutive years and putting up career power numbers. In 1973 and 1975 he led the AL in total bases, and in 1975 he hit .285 with AL-leading totals of 36 home runs and 109 rbis, finishing 8th in the MVP vote.

In the ’76-’77 offseason, Scott was traded back to the Red Sox at the behest of Don Zimmer (along with 1975 World Series hero Bernie Carbo), in exchange for first baseman Cecil Cooper. This 1977 season would be his last fully productive year in professional baseball, and the Boomer knocked 33 homers and drove in 96 runs. In 1978 he hit a mere .233, and in 1979 he split time with the Sox, the Royals, and eventually the Yankees, before retiring from the game. Scott’s career total of 8 Gold Gloves is currently second only to Don Mattingly’s nine.

Following his retirement from baseball, Scott managed in the Mexican League. In the mid 90s, he also skippered the Massachusetts Mad Dogs, where he was named Manager of the Year in 1996. And in October 2006, forty years after debuting for Boston, Scott was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame.

The Boomer currently resides in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Sources:

“Red Sox Heroes of Yesteryear”, by Herbert Crehan
www.thebaseballpage.com
www.baseball-reference.com
Dick Bresciani, Vice President of the Boston Red Sox
Wikipedia

This 100 Greatest Red Sox biography was written by Andy B from Yanksfan vs. Soxfan.

100 Greatest Red Sox >> #43 Pete Runnels

Pete Runnels, 1B/2B, #3 (1958-1962)

732 G, 825 H, 407 R, 29 HR, 249 RBI, .320 Avg. .407 OBP, .427 SLG, All-Star (1959-1960, 1962)

When Jose selected Pete Runnels as one of the old-timey players he would profile, Jose just assumed that he was related to professional wrestler Virgil Runnels III, a.k.a. Goldust, and his father Vigil Runnels Jr., a.k.a. the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. Pete Runnels is not. Nuts.

However, all is not lost, as it turns out that Pete, like his fellow Runnels’ has a secret identity. His shocking true identity is James Edward Runnels. So going by Pete is kind of pathetic. Jose hates people who hide behind fake names. They’re kind of sketchy.

But as it turns out Jose is glad that he ended up with Runnels. You know why? Because Baseball Reference lists, as his eighth most comparable player… get ready… Jose Offerman! Ergo, this profile is the eighth most like writing a capsule pinup of Jose Offerman. It has to be, it’s sabermetrics.

That said, there are still a lot of differences between Runnels and Offerman. For instance, Runnels was a three time All-Star in 1959, 1960 and 1962, whereas Offerman was an All-Star, well, never. Runnels won two batting titles, and barely lost a third to Ted Williams, whereas Offerman won none and narrowly lost a race with Dante Bichette for biggest jackass on the team. And with on base percentages ranging from .396 to .416 in his years with the Red Sox, Runnels could have done a far better job replacing Mo Vaughn’s “on base capability” than Offerman ever did.

Of course, Offerman does have his advantages too. Even though Jose has never seen tape of Runnels, he’s pretty sure he didn’t make that over the shoulder play running into the outfield as well as Offerman… come on, no one made that play as well as Offerman.

I’m Jose Melendez, and those are my KEYS TO THE 100 GREATEST RED SOX.

100 Greatest Red Sox >> #57 Billy Goodman

Billy Goodman, UT, #10 (1947-1957)

1177 G, 1344 H, 14 HR, 464 RBI, .306 AVG, .381 OBP, .387 SLG

Long before Ryan Freel and Chone Figgins made being a utility player cool, there was Billy Goodman, a man of many positions for the Sox during the post-war era. Here’s a quick trivia question for you. Who was the last player to lead the league in batting average while playing at least 20 games at 3 different positions? Yup, Billy Goodman did it when hit .354 in 1950 while playing 45 games in the outfield, 27 games at third, and 21 games at first (as well as 5 games at second and 1 at short). Goodman played in Boston for 9 full years, played five different positions, and he played them all well. As a member of the Red Sox he played 578 games at second, 393 at first, 102 in the outfield (left and right field), 50 at third, and 1 at short.

Goodman broke into the league in 1948 as the team’s regular firstbaseman and was part of a powerful Red Sox line up that scored 907 runs and finished in second place. Goodman hit .310 with a .414 OBP as a rookie although he hit just 1 HR. It was the first of many typical seasons for the utility player. He would hit .293 or better in his first 11 years in the majors (9 of them in Boston). He had absolutely no power (19 HR in 5644 major league AB’s and his career SLG of .378 was just .002 points better than his career OBP of .376), but was always able to work the count and managed to walk more than twice as many times as he struck out.

His tenure with the Red Sox ended in 1957. The team had a regular player at every position and with no place to use Goodman he had managed just 16 AB’s by June 14th when they traded him to Baltimore as part of a 7 player deal. He played in the majors for 5 more years until the age of 36.

The year of Goodman’s batting title, 1950, was also his best season as he set career highs in HR (4), RBI (68), AVG (.354), OBP (. 427), and SLG (.455). He scored 100 runs just once and his career high in steals was 8. He hit .306 as a member of the Red Sox, 11th all-time, and his .381 OBP is good enough for 14th all-time.

Goodman died from cancer at the age of 58 in Sarasota, FL in 1984.

100 Greatest Red Sox >> #84: Buck Freeman

Buck Freeman, OF, (Boston Braves (1900), Boston Red Sox (1901-1907))

820 g, 879 h, 158 2b, 903b, 48 hr, 54 sb, .286 avg, .332 obp, .442 slg

John Frank "Buck" Freeman, born October 30th 1871, was one of the premier sluggers of his era and without doubt the most feared power hitter pre Babe Ruth. He was famous for smacking the long ball at a time when the ball itself was very heavy and hitting it must have felt like trying to hit a large brick with a wiffle ball bat.

When Babe Ruth finally came along and broke Freeman's home run records he was doing so with a completely different ball, one referred to at the time as a 'lively ball'.

One of Freeman's greatest achievements was slugging a whopping 25 four baggers in 1899. One can only imagine how many he would hit today with the current ball against the current level of expansion-diluted pitching.

Interestingly Freeman actually did not start out swinging the bat at all. Born in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, Freeman showed talent as a pitcher from a very young age. He made his major league debut as a left-handed starter with the 'Washington Statesmen' on June 27, 1891, registering the loss in a 4-5 defeat to the Philadelphia Athletics. Freeman played in a further 4 games during the seasons, finishing up with a pretty decent 3-2 record and an earned run average of 3.89.

Despite showing promise on the hill 1891 would be Freeman's only season as a pitcher in the majors, and indeed he then took a seven year sabbatical from Major League Baseball altogether. In his time away he played in the Eastern League with Toronto from 1896 to 1898 but then finally returned to play for Washington midway through the 1898 season.

Freeman's career and indeed life changed forever when he came back and showed that he had learnt to use the bat while he had been away. Washington recognised this immediately and converted Freeman to a right fielder. In the final part of the 1898 season Freeman hit .364 and slugged.523. On the back of this performance he was named the Washington Senators starting right fielder for the 1899 season.

In his first season as a hitter Freeman slugged an amazing 25 home runs. To put that in perspective the second highest total that year was Bobby Wallace's 12. Although Freeman actually hit less than Ned Williamson's record of 27 home runs in a season, recorded in 1884, Freeman's total is widely regarded as the greater achievement because of the home run friendly dimensions of Williamson's home ballpark of Lakeshore Park (of Williamson's 27 homers, only 2 were hit away from home). Freeman's tally was not surpassed until 1919, when Babe Ruth smashed 29 home runs while with the Boston Red Sox.

Freeman was paid $225 a month in '99, putting everything in perspective. At that time the average annual salary of skilled labourers in the United States was $780, roughly $2 a day. Freeman, by contrast, earned $3000 a year.

The Washington Senators disbanded at the end of the 1899 season, so Freeman, looking for a job, spent the 1900 season with the Boston Beaneaters. His offensive numbers for the year were down on the year before, he hit only the 6 home runs and knocked in 66 runs. At the end of the season he and teammate Jimmy Collins moved across town to the Boston Americans, who decided to convert him into a first baseman. In 1901 Freeman hit his way back into the form he was capable of: he finished second overall in home runs (12), RBIs (114), and slugging percentage (.520), finishing behind Nap Lajoie in all categories. In 1901, however, Freeman hit his way back into the news.

Headlines from the period;

May 8, 1901: In their long-delayed AL home opener, Boston defeats Philadelphia's Bill Bernhard, 12-4, behind Cy Young, who has jumped from the St. Louis NL team. Boston is led by Buck Freeman, who has a single, triple and homer.

June 17, 1901: Bosox sweep a Bunker Hill day double-header, 11-1 and 10-4, part of five game sweep over the White Sox. The Sox relinquish 1st place to Boston. Buck Freeman has a homer and triple in the two games to back Mitchell and Cy Young.

Come the 1902 season and in his second year with the Boston Americans Freeman returned to playing right field, which most regarded as his better position. Freeman must have enjoyed the transition as he led the American League with 121 RBIs. In 1903 he helped Boston to the inaugural World Series, the first ever modern version of the great event, by leading the league in both home runs (13), and RBIs (104); in doing so Freeman became the first player ever to have completed an odd double and to have lead both the National League and the American League in home runs.

All season long Freeman was in the headlines:

June 21, 1903: In a Sunday match in Canton, Ohio, Boston outslugs Cleveland to win 12-7. Buck Freeman is 5-for-6, including the cycle, with six RBIs, while Nap Lajoie is 3-for-5 for Cleveland.

August 20, 1903: At Chicago, Boston's Buck Freeman is the first to hit a ball over the RF score board, but the (Boston) Pilgrims lose to the White Sox, 9-5.

The 1903 World Series was the only World Series Freeman ever played in, and after the marvelous preceding season he had, it proved to be lacklustre by his own standards - he hit a reasonable .281 but only knocked in 4 runs and hit no home runs in the eight games.

After Boston's World Series success Buck Freeman's offensive figures took a little bit of a dip. In 1906 he hit .250 with only 1 home run and just 30 RBIs. At the end of the disappointing season Freeman decided to play just one more year. Boston tried to speed that process up by releasing him after only four games in 1907 but Freeman moved on and finished the season with the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, hitting a fantastic .335 and smacking 18 home runs. Freeman had come back with a bang. He couldn't walk away and he decided to spend a further season with the Millers.

The 1908 season was Freeman's last in professional baseball,he hit a very respectable 10 home runs albeit with an average of .218. Buck Freeman passed away June 25, 1949 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania at the grand old age of 78.

Freeman retired with a major league career batting average of .293, OBP of .346, a slugging percentage of .462, 82 home runs, and 713 RBIs.

This Top 100 Red Sox of all time profile was written by Cormac Eklof @ ''I didn't know there was baseball in Ireland?!''

100 Greatest Red Sox >> #90 Brian Daubach

Brian Daubach, 1B, #23 (1999-2002, 2004)

541 G, 477 H, 86 HR, 306 RBI, 4 SB, .265 AVG, .341 OBP, .488 SLG

Brian Michael Daubach, born February 11, 1972 in Belleville, Illinois, was drafted in 1990 by the New York Mets in the 17th Round, and got a reputation as a player that always was the sort of guy who you had an idea could contribute but not start everyday. He toiled for seven years in the Mets’ minor league system without breaking through to the majors before being granted free agency. In 1997, he signed with the Florida Marlins organization and made his major league debut in 1998 getting 15 ABs. In 1995, he crossed picket lines to be a replacement player (scab) during the MLBPA players’ strike, but the strike ended before any of the replacements saw game action. (Daubach is one of a select few Major League Baseball players who is not a member of the MLB Players Union because he was a strike breaker during the 1994 strike shortened season.)

A left-handed first baseman with above-average power, Daubach was shunned as a “scab” when he joined the Boston Red Sox in 1999. Due to his hard nosed style of play and penchant for clutch hitting this resentment didn’t last long, and he quickly became both a player and fan favorite. From 1999-2002 he averaged 432 ABs. His best year with the Sox was his first, 1999, when he batted .294 with 21 HR and 73 RBI. He became the first among AL rookies in home runs. He is only the third left-handed rookie in Red Sox history to hit at least 20 home runs, joining Ted Williams (20 in 1939) and Fred Lynn (21 in 1975). Those power numbers stayed somewhat consistant throughout his time with the Sox, but his average took a bit of a hit as the years went on. A notable moment for Red Sox Nation occurred on August 16, 1999 when he helped the Red Sox pull away from the Oakland Athletics en route to the American League wild card with his three-run double in the bottom of the ninth off Tim Worrell.

During his tenure with the Red Sox, he also became a special friend to the Jimmy Fund. In addition to making frequent visits to the Jimmy Fund Clinic, Daubach made appearances at Jimmy Fund events, including the Scooper Bowl®, and served as a spokesman for the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk. In 2003, Daubach contributed $500 to the Jimmy Fund for every home run he hit throughout the season. The Brian Daubach Home Run Challenge raised $34,000.

Sadly, he had no place on the team at the beginning of the 2003. He signed with the Chicago White Sox, but saw limited action and underperformed to a great extent. He made a triumphant return to Fenway in 2004, but he did not play well after coming back and was soon gone again. He is considered a founding member of the “Boston Dirt Dogs” and later received a World Series Championship ring as a member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

On June 16, 2005, Daubach finally made his debut with the club that drafted him fifteen years earlier. He started 2005 with the Norfolk Tides, a Triple-A affiliate of the Mets in the International League. That year Brian led the way for the Tides, as he led the International League in all three triple-crown categories, hitting .371 with eight home runs and 25 RBI. Currently, Brian is a minor league first baseman for the Memphis Redbirds, the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

In his seven-season major league career, he has compiled a .261 batting average with 92 home runs and 330 RBI in 646 games.

Player Biography by Karen

100 Greatest Red Sox >> #92 Dick Gernert

Dick Gernert, 1B, #3 (1952-1959)

706 G, 568 H, 101 HR, 377 RBI, .252 AVG, .352 OBP, .436 SLG, 9 SB

Richard “Dick” Edward Gernert was born in Reading on September 28, 1928 and rose through the amateur baseball ranks at Northeast Junior High, Reading High, Gregg Post American Legion. Gernert was a power hitter out of Temple University where he also lettered in basketball. He hit 19 HR as a Boston rookie and 21 as a sophomore in the only years he was a regular.

After signing with Boston (AL) and spending two full years in the minors, he began his 11-year Major League career in 1952 with the Red Sox, taking over at first base when Walt Dropo was dealt to Detroit in early June.

In 1952 as a 23-year old power-hitting rookie, Gernert made an immediate splash in Beantown. Despite hitting only .243, he slammed 19 homers (tenth best in the American League) and drove in 67 runs. He wound up leading the Red Sox in both HRs and RBIs even though he totaled just 367 at-bats. He finished 25th in voting for the 1952 American League MVP for playing in 102 Games and having 367 At Bats, 58 Runs, 89 Hits, 20 Doubles, 2 Triples, 19 Home Runs, 67 RBI, 4 Stolen Bases, 35 Walks, .243 Batting Average, .317 On-base percentage, .463 Slugging Percentage and 170 Total Bases.

The following season Gernert continued his slugging ways by smacking 21 round-trippers, which tied him with Mickey Mantle for seventh best in the American League. Once again he led the Red Sox in long balls and also boosted his batting average (.253), RBIs (71), runs scored (76) and walks (88).

Giving new meaning to the term 7th inning stretch, the Red Sox scored 17 runs in one inning against the Detroit Tigers on June 18th. The Sox sent 23 batters to the plate as the Tigers tried to stop the bleeding with three different pitchers. None of them worked. The Sox had 14 hits and six walks in the record-setting inning. Leading the charge was Dick Gernert and Gene Stephens. Stephens set a major league record with three hits in one inning, while Gernert knocked in four of the 17 runs. The Sox finished with 27 hits and 23 runs. It is too bad that only 3,626 fans showed up to see the barrage of runs. The Sox broke or tied 17 major league records that day, even though the greatest hitter in Sox history, Ted Williams was still fighting in the Korean War.

After missing most of the next two seasons (he played a total of 21 games) due to illness, Gernert made a comeback in 1956. Now splitting his time between first base and the outfield, he set a new career high with a .291 batting average while contributing 16 home runs and 68 RBIs in 306 at-bats. His home run percentage of 5.2 equaled that of his outstanding rookie season. The next year he returned to being primarily a first baseman. Though he found himself hitting cleanup behind Ted Williams on opening day, his production fell off in all major categories by year’s end. But 1958 would see Gernert’s offensive numbers rebound as he reached 20 home runs for the second time in his career while knocking in 69.

It was also a banner year for him in the field, as he led all American League first sackers in putouts (1101), assists (93) and double plays (118). Though his power stats had improved, Gernert’s batting average had hovered at .237 in both ’57 and ’58, and by 1959 he was sharing his first base duties with the left-handed hitting Vic Wertz. In 298 at-bats, Gernert hit .262 with 11 home runs and 42 RBIs. In November that year, the Sox decided to give the position to Wertz on a full time basis and traded Gernert to the Chicago Cubs. To that point in his major league career, Gernert had been a member of Boston teams that usually played better than .500 ball and resided in the middle of the AL pack.

1960 brought a change for the worse, as both the Cubs and the Tigers, to whom he was traded in August, finished well below the break-even point. Between the two clubs, he hit .267 but only had one four-base swat in 146 at-bats. In May of 1961, Gernert was dealt again, this time to Cincinnati. Though the Reds won only 93 games they captured the National League pennant. Used as a reserve for the remainder of the season, Gernert still contributed to the Reds’ march to the World Series, batting .302 in 40 games after the trade. He also got a chance to pinch hit in four of the five Series games against New York but did not get a hit as the Yanks won it, four games to one.

In 1962, Gernert was picked in the expansion draft by the Houston Colt .45s. Houston’s first year in the league would also be Gernert’s last. After appearing in just 10 games for Houston, his big league career ended that May. He finished with a lifetime .254 batting average, 103 home runs, 402 RBIs and 357 runs scored.

Gernert hung on professionally for another couple of years. He caught on with the Pacific Coast League’s Tacoma Giants for the remainder of the ’62 season and hit .289 with 20 homers and 68 RBIs. His final playing days would be spent with the Reading Red Sox in 1963 and 1964, where he hit .283 with 24 home runs and 125 RBIs in 182 games.

In 11 seasons he played in 835 Games and had 2,493 At Bats, 357 Runs, 632 Hits, 104 Doubles, 8 Triples, 103 Home Runs, 402 RBI, 10 Stolen Bases, 363 Walks, .254 Batting Average, .351 On-base percentage, .426 Slugging Percentage, 1,061 Total Bases, 10 Sacrifice Hits, 13 Sacrifice Flies and 12 Intentional Walks.


In 1969, Gernert began a brief managerial career with Wytheville of the Appalachian League, leading the Senators to a 31-35 mark. Tabbed to manage Pittsfield of the Eastern League in 1970, he was reassigned to the American Association’s Denver squad in mid-season. Denver would win the West Division with a 70-69 record, but fall to Omaha in the championship series. Gernert continued to work in baseball throughout the 70s, serving as a scout for the Reds, Senators and Rangers and a first base coach for Texas. In 1978 he was hired as director of player development for the New York Mets, holding that position for three years. He returned to Texas as a scout and national cross-checker from 1981-85 and then ended his baseball career with the Mets as an advanced scout from 1986-2000.

Player Biography by Karen

Test Post and Posting Thougths

I'll delete this once we get this up and running, but I needed to test out the posts and lay out a few things for post guidelines.

All posts should have a similar look and feel....I'll work on that and post a sample post with a dummy player, etc.

We'll use the labels as follows: Years played for the Red Sox (1901, 1902, 1903, etc) and positions played (please use 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, C, RF, LF, CF, SP, RP, CL (cl is special for those designated as "closer"), Manager, Owner, Front Office, Team.

I'll be responsible for editing the posts for formatting and labels etc after they go live to ensure consistency.

Digital Derek of SawxBlog is working on a header graphic and I'll be playing aroudn with formating.

Thanks,
Tim