The Best Red Sox Players Ever

Ted Williams, Jim Rice and Manny Among Greats Whom Fans Never Loved

Sep 11, 2007

In a town where baseball failure is a way of life, these players made existence a little more tolerable for the sometimes less-than-loveable historic losers from Boston.

The Boston Red Sox have been around for 107 years. During the team's first eighteen years, they won five World Series titles, with the last coming in 1918. Over the next 85 years, the Sox would have some of the greatest players in baseball history, but were never able to break through and win another Fall Classic until they trounced the New York Yankees in the ALCS and swept the Cardinals in the World Series in 2004.

Perhaps as a result of the team's long championship drought, many of the team's greatest players were mistreated throughout their careers by Boston fans, ownership and media. Nevertheless, despite often playing in a hostile environment, these ten players were all-time greats.

Williams was among the greatest hitters of all time, and he may have been the best. But in his 19 seasons, the man nicknamed the Splendid Splinter never won the hearts or minds of the Boston media or Red Sox fans. The relationship was so strained that after Williams homered in the last career at-bat, he refused to take a curtain call or tip his cap to the fans who finally seemed to understand how great he was.

Williams finished his career with the seventh best batting average in history (.344). He's also got the best career on base percentage of any player, ever (.482). Moreover, although he missed almost five full seasons of his playing career to two wars, Williams still ranks among the all-time leaders in home runs (521) and RBI (1,839) and runs scored (1,798).

Yastrzemski was the last player to win a Triple Crown when he led the A.L. in batting (.326), home runs (44) and RBI (121) in 1967. Yaz ranks sixth all-time in hits with 3,419. He was also the first player in baseball history to top 3,000 hits and 400 home runs, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1989. Yaz was also the major offensive force on two American League pennant winners (1967 and 1975).

Clemens was the greatest starting pitcher in Red Sox history. He won the Cy Young Award three times (1986, '87 and '91), an MVP award, and 192 games while wearing a Red Sox uniform.

Boston let him go after the 1996 season, and then-general manager Dan Duquette said that Clemens was in the "twilight of his career." Clemens went on to even greater heights since being banished from Beantown, winning 4 more Cy Young awards, two pitching Triple Crowns, two World Series titles and another 162 games.

Yet, for some reason, Red Sox fans continue to hate Clemens to this day simply for performing well after he was booted from the team.

Rice was one of the most fearsome hitters of the 1970s and '80s. He won the 1978 MVP award when he led the American League in hits, triples, home runs and RBI. His final career statistics are Hall of Fame worthy, although he has not yet been elected, a fact that many attribute to his lack of support from Boston's baseball media.

In 2004, Ramirez helped the Red Sox to their only World Series title in almost 100 years. During the season, Manny hit .308 with 43 home runs and 130 RBI. He then hit .385 in the ALDS, .300 in the ALCS and .412 in the World Series.

In seven seasons, Ramirez has hit .313, with an average of 36 home runs and 116 RBI per season. For every season that he has played in a Boston uniform, Ramirez has been an All Star, placed in the top 10 in MVP voting and won a Siver Slugger award. You can't ask for much more than that in terms of production.

Yet, in every offseason beginning in 2003, the Sox have either placed Manny on waivers or aggressively tried to trade him to another team because of his often contentious relationship with management.

Joe Cronin must have been a pretty special guy. In 1933, when he was still just 26 years old, the Washington Senators named Cronin the team's player/manager, making him the youngest man to skipper a team in half a century. Two years later, Cronin accepted the same position with the Boston Red Sox and went on to become one of the best at both jobs in Boston history.

Cronin was a lifetime .301 hitter who topped 100 RBI in eight seasons. As a manger, he led the 1946 team to the A.L. pennant, taking the team to the its first World Series in 1946. Cronin was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1956.

In Pedro's seven seasons at Fenway Park, he was 117-28 with an ERA of 2.38. While in a Red Sox uniform, Pedro struck out 10.9 batters and walked 1.6 per nine innings, won two Cy Young awards, and he finished in the top five for that prize in six of his seven seasons in Boston.

In 11 seasons in Boston, Boggs had seven straight years of more than 200 hits, won five batting titles, made eight all-star teams and won six Silver Slugger awards. After just one sub-par season in 1992, however, the Red Sox let Boggs go on the free agent market. Boggs signed with the Yankees, where he played four seasons, hit over .300 every season, and was a key part of the team's 1996 World Series win.

Clearly the greatest talent to ever wear a Red Sox uniform, Ruth was primarily a pitcher for the team from 1914 through 1919. His career mark in Boston was 95-46 and he was a major part of three World Series winning teams. Owner Harry Frazee, however, sold Ruth to the New York Yankees before the 1920 season. Ruth went on to become an American legend and the best ballplayer who ever lived.

Joe's little brother was perfect for Boston. A fine outfielder who played in the shadow of his more famous -- and much more accomplished -- big brother from New York City, DiMaggio made seven All Star teams and hit for a .298 career average.

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