If nothing else, the 2009 Red Sox seem likely to be good at catching the damn ball. The team will start former Gold Glove winners at catcher, first base, second base, and third base, and will feature a shortstop who didn’t make a single error at the position during his rookie season last year. The outfield will be stronger than any they’ve fielded in years, due to the continued development of centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and the defensive upgrade in left field of Jason Bay over Manny Ramirez. It may be one of the best-fielding teams the Red Sox have ever had.
Other contenders for that title, off the top of my head, include the 2006 team that committed just 66 errors and featured perhaps the best-fielding shortstop ever to wear a Red Sox uniform, Alex Gonzalez; the late 1970s teams that had Gold Glovers at catcher (Fisk), shortstop (Burleson), centerfield (Lynn), left field (Yastrzemski), and right field (Evans); the Red Sox teams of the late 1940s, with Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Dom Dimaggio anchoring the center of the diamond; and the Tris Speaker championship clubs of the teens, led by the league’s top third-baseman, Larry Gardner, team captain Heinie Wagner at shortstop, and the all-world outfield of Speaker, Duffy Lewis, and Harry Hooper.
In honor of those teams and this year’s team, I feel like offering my picks for the all-time Red Sox fielding team over the next few days (catcher and pitcher today, followed by infield, then outfield). Please chime in with your own choices if they differ from my idiosyncratic selections:
C: Tony Pena. This may seem to be an odd choice, given that two of the most popular Red Sox of all-time, Carlton Fisk and Jason Varitek, also played the position and, what’s more, won Gold Gloves there. Furthermore, early franchise standout Lou Criger and Hall of Famer Rick Ferrell were also celebrated for their skills behind the plate. But it seems to me that Tony Pena, who won a Gold Glove with the Red Sox in 1991 after winning three earlier awards with the Pirates, had a reputation for defensive excellence that surpassed those other star Red Sox catchers. Impressively limber behind the plate, and very fun in general to watch ply his trade, Pena was certainly the most stylish player the Red Sox have had at the position often characterized as offering the least stylish work available on a diamond. I don’t know if that counts in his favor, but I’m going to say that it does. Also, I have never been less hopeful that a Red Sox player would get a big hit than when Tony Pena came to bat, which suggests to me he must have been an incredible defensive player to justify a place in the lineup. (In a cruel irony, my dim feelings about his batting skills were contradicted when Pena, after leaving the Red Sox, hit an extra-inning game-winning home run against them in a 1995 playoff game.)
P: Bret Saberhagen. The Red Sox have never had a pitcher win a Gold Glove award, but Saberhagen at least had one in his trophy room when he pitched for the team in the late 1990s. I was going to give the spot on the team to a personal favorite, Bill Lee, but I couldn’t base it on anything beyond these three things: he seemed to be a good all-around athlete; he was a junkball pitcher who by necessity would have to be sharper in the field than, say, Nolan Ryan; and he knew how to catch popups behind his back. But since I have no evidence of his fielding ability beyond that, I have to give the slot to Saberhagen, trusting that the reflexes that enabled him to win the 1989 Gold Glove were not completely shot by the time he toiled for the Red Sox from 1997 through 2001.
Topics: Bill Lee, Bret Saberhagen, Carlton Fisk, Jason Varitek, Lou Criger, Rick Ferrell, Tony Pena
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Saberhagen was much better for the Sox than I think he’s credited with. Yeah, he only had 1.5 real seasons of success, but he still managed earn a victory in 25 of the 53 starts made during those seasons. The sox won 35 of those 53 starts too. The bookend rehab stints blur his talent a lot.