I love Frank but this is a wild list.
To not include Yaz at all and have Ruth ranked so high is completely nuts.
Here is my Top 10 Greatest Boston Red Sox players of all-time.
Dustin Pedroia
This was a tough call.
I went with Pedroia overManny Ramirez,Nomar Garciaparra,Babe RuthandTris Speaker.
Each of those players had much better careers than Pedroia but were they better Red Sox?
On top of all of that, he was a brilliant defensive player as well.
Pedroia has no business being in the Hall of Fame.
He only had 1805 hits and played his last full season at 33.
If he hadn’t gotten hurt, could he have had a career like Barry Larkin?
That’s not a fair argument.
you could only compare Ruth or Ted Williams or Lou Gehrig against who they played against.
Young was with Boston from 1901-08.
This was a time when Harry Davis led the league in home runs in 1907 with 8.
In 1902, Young himself went 32-11 and pitched 384 innings.
But even though the stats are crazy, I still think he deserves a place on this list.
He was the best pitcher in baseball during his early years in Boston.
That has to count for something.
I’m just not exactly sure what.
Jim Rice
From 1977-79, Rice was the most feared slugger in baseball.
His 1978 season was especially wild.
He came up with Fred Lynn who instantly won the MVP.
By the 80’s, it was Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens who got all the headlines.
It ended quick for Rice when his eyes went and he was out of baseball by 36.
He is a borderline Hall of Famer but similar to Pedroia, he’s a must for this list.
He’s certainly an all-time Red Sox.
Rice was the better home run hitter but Evans had the better batting eye.
WAR takes that into effect and then the question of who was better becomes a little clearer.
He’s the victim of bad timing.
If he had that same career 15 years later, he would have been looked at very differently.
Wade Boggs
Wade Boggs was a pretty great baseball player.
I think he was better than Tony Gwynn.
Clemens has also struck out more batters than any other Boston pitcher.
His stats in Boston alone are Hall of Fame worthy.
He won three Cy Youngs, led the AL in ERA four times and even won an MVP award.
Clemens is pretty self-destructive.
Clemens and Bonds really are the same.
Both were already HOFers before they took steroids.
They ended up with stats that defy logic but was it worth it?
He only played seven years in Boston (compared to Clemens who was there for 13).
He has to make a list like this.
Imagine having to fill Teddy Ballgame’s shoes and still finish with 700 more hits than him?
Yaz is similar to Celtics great John Havlicek.
Havlicek is overshadowed by Bill Russell and Larry Bird in Celtics lore.
Yaz gets forgotten when next to Williams or even Boggs/Clemens and especially Ortiz.
Yaz had a hell of a career.
Ted Williams
How long could Ted Williams have played if the DH was around in 1960?
He batted .316/.451/.645 in that last season.
He basically missed five seasons because of the wars alone.
