Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Boston Red Sox - Pick your most beloved Red Sox center fielder - Boston Dirt Dogs - Boston.com
In scrolling through the photo gallery of those who patrolled CF in Fenway, I was really impressed with the quality of players. The gallery did not cite Rick Miller who had a great glove but just an average bat. Reggie Smith was on the "Impossible Dream" team in '67. My favorite was Fred Lynn. He had to be one of the most graceful players I had ever seen. I saw him once turn his back completely on a hard hit ball to the "Bermuda Triangle" and turn around just as the ball landed safely into his glove. He had such a smooth, made-for-Fenway inside-out swing. He used the Monster to his advantage. Johnny Pesky called Lynn about one of the most talented players he had ever seen. I saw him when Boston came to the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The ball jumped off his bat. He played CF with the reckless abandon of the Brooklyn Dodgers' Pete Reiser often crashing into the wall and diving for fly balls. It broke my heart when they traded Lynn to the Angels, thinking he would not re-sign to stay in Boston. The goes that he had a football scholarship to USC and played safety. During a practice session, he decided to up and take on Sam "the Bam" Cunningham on a goal line stand drill and suffered a serious concussion. Afterwards, he asked Athletic Director John McKay if he could switch his scholarship to baseball. I still recall hawking the boxscores in '75 to see how he and Jim Rice did. How many teams' farm system can produce rookies such as Lynn and Rice? They truly were the "Goldust Twins" and "Thunder and Lightning" as Bob Watson once called them. It is such a shame that his career was hampered by injuries and his career numbers will not enable him to get into the Hall of Fame. I think he made a good choice switching to baseball. Boston Red Sox - Pick your most beloved Red Sox center fielder - Boston Dirt Dogs - Boston.com
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Ok, now this is a poll! Some very big names are listed here, although as much as I love Coco Crisp, he seems oddly out of place with Fred Lynn, Damon and Ells. I do remember Coco's catch in the triangle in the '07 postseason. There's no question that he gets a good jump on balls. Ells is a superstar in the making and I don't think we've seen the whole package yet. If he can stay healthy this year and be productive offensively, he's got a bright future ahead of him.
ReplyDeleteThen there's Johnny, the idiot. Yes, he'll always have a place in Sox lore and I've seen him make some good defensive plays. (I'm going with a defensive approach here since I think batting titles are batting titles, not defense.) So, the winner is: Damon. This is because I don't remember seeing Lynn, Armas, and the others play. I grew up an Os fan until I came to my senses and realized their best days were behind them. But I remember Johnny. And while there is much love for Ells, his book is as yet unwritten.