The sun sets on another year...

2011 was a great year for Sully Baseball, if not for the Red Sox.
More videos, more podcasts and more readers than ever.

Thanks for all of your support (and keep sharing the videos!)

2012 looks to be even better. More videos, more posts, more articles and maybe a few more surprises.

All the best.

The A.P. made their Buckner announcement correctly and with class

A.P. is reporting that the Boise Hawks, a Single A team for the Cubs, has hired Bill Buckner as their new hitting coach.

Here is how the report reads:

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs have hired former star Bill Buckner as a minor league hitting coach.

Buckner will be with the Boise Hawks of the short-season Class A Northwest League. The Cubs made the announcement Friday.

Buckner played for the Cubs from 1977-84 and won the 1980 NL batting title. He was a career .289 hitter over 22 seasons.

The 62-year-old Buckner was a manager last year for Brockton, a Massachusetts team in the independent CanAm league. He previously was a hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox and held the same position in the minors for Toronto.

Did you notice what part of his biography they left out?
That's a good thing.

Buckner played for the Cubs and was a batting champ and has forgotten more about hitting than his critics will ever know.

Good for the A.P. for referring to him as "Former Star."
That's EXACTLY what he was.

And if you think they should have included anything in his bio about a World Series game, then kindly watch this video...

Wait... They Make Lego Baseball Players?

When I was a kid I obsessed over Star Wars, Batman, Lego and baseball.
My brother and I played all 4 constantly, but there wasn't any cross over.

Chewbacca never showed up in Gotham City. There was no Lego baseball stadium.

And we had space advantures in Lego, but they were always the cool Lego spacemen with the helmet, airtank and the spaceship zooming around the moon logo on their chest and spaceships.

We played with them whenever we weren't also playing Star Wars, Batman or baseball.

There was an order to the universe.

Well this Christmas something changed in the fabric of the universe.


A friend of the family gave my boys these Lego figures of baseball players.

Specifically Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. They came with a Red Sox cap, the correct facial hair, a bat and also a glove. (Very interesting to see Big Papi with a glove.)

But consider the fact that there is Lego Batman now... and Lego Star Wars is everywhere, I wonder if I would have been able to deal with all of this childhood fun overlapping.

Oh who am I kidding? It would have been awesome.

A-Rod runs to Germany to hide from Father Time

I have no clue what Kobe Bryant suggested to Alex Rodriguez. I hope it wasn't marital advice. But the two least favorite players for Boston Sports Fans met and evidently talked about going to Germany to get some sort of blood work done that sounds strange at best and fishy at worst.

Is it legal?
Probably.

It is a red flag that he can't find someone in America to do it?
Yeah. Sort of.

But there are two things that A-Rod can't prevent no matter how many procedures he has had and how many timezones he crosses:

Age and a lack of steroids.

He's on the wrong side of 35.
Back before the days of Performance Enhancing Drugs, that was right around the time that sluggers fell apart.

Jimmie Foxx was washed up by 35.
Frank Robinson was on the decline by then.
Dave Winfield had one more great season after 35, then fought constant injuries.
Eddie Murray was still effective, but his best years were well behind him.
Al Kaline was on his last legs.
Jim Rice was winding down.
Hank Greenberg had his last great season at age 35. He was out of baseball at 37.
Willie Mays never hit 30 homers after age 35 and was never again an MVP candidate.

Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth continued to put up amazing numbers after 35.
They were both pretty good.
And they were the exceptions.

A-Rod is no longer juicing. According to A-Rod his juicing days ended when he left Texas. He took them in Texas because of the pressure. And then he stopped (because Heaven knows there is no pressure in playing in New York.)

He was caught in 2009 and turned his year around by leading the Yankees to the World Championship... an act that bought A-Rod about 3 minutes of good will from Yankees fans. Since winning the MVP (his 3rd) in 2007, his OPS has dropped every season, his home run totals have dropped almost every year (he hit 30 in both 2009 and 2010) and he hasn't been able to avoid injuries.

A drop in power and inability to recover suddenly happening in the past few years, ESPECIALLY after the positive test was revealed? Are you SURE you stopped when your days in Texas ended?

His 1.067 OPS in 158 games in 2007 has turned into an .823 OPS in 99 games last year.
And he will be a year older.
With six years left to play in his megacontract that is set to pay him $29 million in 2012, $28 million in 2013, $25 million in 2014, $21 million in 2015, $20 million in 2016 and a mere $20 million in 2017.

He'll be 41 years old in 2017.
His body is breaking down to the point where he is doing experimental blood work in Germany to get him in playing shape at age 36!

How is this going to get BETTER over the next six years?
Yeah the Yankees have tons of money, but enough to pay a player in 6 years like a superstar even though those years seem behind him NOW?

If 2009 is already a hazy memory for Yankee fans NOW, how distant will it seem in 2017?

Good luck in Germany, A-Rod.
You better hope they found the fountain of youth there... and you had also better hope the fountain of youth isn't on the list of banned substances.

No Washington pitcher has ever clinched a post season series

Anyone who reads this blog knows I have a mild obsession with pitchers who throw the last out of a playoff series and get mobbed by their teammates on the mound.

I've written about it many times including this gem.

And I'm working on a blog series on that topic. I already posted one about the Red Sox.

So going through the other teams I realized that baseball fans of the city of Washington D.C. have never experienced the site of a pitcher throwing his hands in the air and being mobbed at the end of a post season series.


Never once.

Not a World Series, LCS or Division Series.

Every other big league city has had that experience at least once. Even the two places where big league baseball doesn't exist anymore had that moment. Johnny Podres was in the middle of a mob for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Steve Rogers clinched a series for the Montreal Expos.


But three different franchises have played in Washington DC in the 20th and 21st centuries. One became the Twins. One became the Rangers. One used to be the Expos.

And in all of those years and teams they have combined for one post season series win. The 1924 World Series. But that one ended with a walk off hit: Earl McNeely's bad hop single that scored Muddy Ruel in the bottom of the 12th in Game 7.

Walter Johnson was the winning pitcher but the celebration was at the plate.

So take note Washington pitchers Gio Gonzalez, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Tyler Clippard or Drew Storen. If you get to play October and you find yourself on the mound with a chance to win a series, you'll be giving Washington fans a sight that they have NEVER seen.

Unless of course you consider most Washington fans were Baltimore fans and they saw a lot of post season celebrations. But that's quibbling.

Will the A's have ANY big leaguers in 2012?

The Red Sox are getting Andrew Bailey from the A's and I am all for this move.
But man oh man, will there be ANY reason to go to an A's game in Oakland in 2011?

They shipped off three former All Star pitchers under the age of 28.

Will they have any big leaguers in uniform?

Seriously... my idea of putting the A's in the minors and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs playing in the majors is making more and more sense.

Demote the A's to the minors and promote THE IRON PIGS

The Oakland Athletics are acting like a minor league team and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs are drawing like a major league team.

So for the next few years I think the A's should be a AAA team and the IronPigs should play in the American League.

Bear with me.

It isn't even New Year's Day and the A's have waved the white flag for 2012.

They traded two of the most valuable chips in baseball, Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez, both former All Star pitchers in their mid 20s and under contractual control for a few years. And in exchange they got prospects prospects and more prospects.

A. J. Cole, Derek Norris, Brad Peacock and Tom Milone were four of the gems in the Nationals farm system.

Jarrod Parker and Collin Cowgill are top prospects who already have post season experience with Arizona.

Chances are they aren't about to add to their post season totals in Oakland.

In fact the entire organization seems to be just hanging around waiting for the inevitable move to San Jose. They aren't going to draw in the Oakland Coliseum (or whatever it is called.) They won't have a decent TV contract. They won't be putting major leaguers on the field. And they have no intention of contending.

They weren't the worst team in baseball in 2011. Hell, they weren't even the worst team in their division. (That honor goes to the Mariners.)

But if they are going to put a minor league product on the field in a lousy ballpark, then they should play in the minor leagues!

If fans in the Bay Area want to see a big league club, then go across the Bay Bridge and see the Giants.

So while the A's are a major league team acting like a minor league team, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs are a minor league team acting like they are the big leagues!

Unlike the A's, ALL of their home games are televised. Unlike the A's, ALL of their games are broadcast on the ESPN radio affiliate.

And unlike the A's, they play in a state of the art stadium, Coca Cola Park in Allentown Pennsylvania. It holds 10,000 fans and they drew nearly that each game. Supposedly the A's drew around 18,000 a game in 2011. But if you happened to catch an A's game on TV, there is no way there were that many people at each game.

I doubt Coca Cola Park needs to put a tarp in the upper deck.

And between the A's and the Pigs, there is only one person in uniform that most people have heard of.
Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is the manager of the Pigs.

And he was the Baseball America Manager of the Year leading Lehigh Valley to the championship round of the Governor's Cup.

Ryno deserves a shot to manage in the Majors. Why not with the Pigs?

Look me in the eye and tell me that the people of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton PA wouldn't fill the stadium every night.

Tell me that IronPigs merchandise wouldn't be flying off of the shelves.

The good folks of Oakland, Berkeley, Pleasanton, Hayward and Fremont seem to be indifferent about the A's these days.

And it would only be temporary. Soon the A's will be in San Jose and the A's will be a big league product.

And the novelty of major league baseball in Lehigh Valley would wear off in a few years.

But for the next two or three seasons, switch the Pigs and A's.

Stomper the Elephant will perform for AAA teams.

Pork Chop the Iron Pig will be in the Big Leagues for a short time.

What would this mean to the Phillies, who use the IronPigs as a AAA affiliate? And what about Sacramento River Cats, who are the A's AAA affiliate?

What if the Phillies need to recall a player? Or an IronPig needs to be sent down? Or a Sacramento player has warranted a promotion?

Maybe a RiverCat can be sent to Lehigh Valley.
Or maybe an Oakland Athletic can, for the seasons they are a AAA team can be sent to Philadelphia. That would be nice symmetry going back to the Philadelphia Athletics days.

And if this arrangement bothers you and seems illogical and will cause you to write an angry post in the comment section... relax. This isn't really happening.

But it should.

Andres DuBouchet joins the Sully Baseball Show

The brilliant Andres DuBouchet, Emmy nominated writer for Conan and the creator of the brilliant comedy CD "Naked Trampoline Hamlet" stopped by The Sully Baseball Show podcast tonight.

It is the second hour of the Seamheads block on Monday night after What's On Second, the flagship show of the Seamheads National Podcasting Network.

Listen to the Show here.

Listen to internet radio with Seamheads on Blog Talk Radio

Brown and Costner... a tale of two Kevins

This post is about two guys named Kevin. Mentioning either of their names would elicit an eye roll from most of you.

Kevin Brown and Kevin Costner are both associated with excess, wasted money, bad decisions and alienated fans. And yet the early part of both of their careers were terrific and it is a shame that their positives have been almost wiped out of our minds after the negatives.

Let's take Kevin Brown.

What do you think about when you hear Kevin Brown? Chances are you would think of the fact that of all people HE was the first $100 million contract in baseball.

And after signing the bloated contract with the Dodgers he started demanding they pay his flights to visit his family in Georgia (as if 9 figures couldn't get some plane tickets.)

And he was such a prickly guy that Sports Illustrated called him an ornery S.O.B. on their cover.

If you are a Yankee fan you might remember he was a major bust when traded to the Bronx for Jeff Weaver.

And of course he committed two unforgivable sins in New York:

He broke his own hand against a wall down the stretch in 2004.
And in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS he faced 9 batters, got only 4 of them out and was charged with 5 runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Red Sox... arguably the worst and most humiliating loss in the history of the team.

Yankee fans might remember how the Yankees couldn't give him away that off season and he returned in 2005 to make 13 starts and post a 6.50 ERA before his body and career finally broke down.

Yankee fans might also remember how Joe Torre described him breaking down in his tell all book. And of course he is mentioned in the Mitchell Report.

Not a great legacy.

Now take a look at Costner.

When was the last time anyone was excited to see a Kevin Costner movie?
When was the last time he was considered to be a bankable or likable star?

It's been a while.

His appearances in films like Rumor Has It or Swing Vote or Mr. Brooks didn't exactly light the world on fire.

And his career took an incredible nose dive with big bloated self aggrandizing epics like Waterworld and The Postman. (Seriously. If you haven't see The Postman... it is one of the craziest monuments to a man's ego that has ever been constructed. And yes I include the pyramids in that list.)

And maybe it all started to go wrong when he inexplicably was cast as Robin Hood in the unwatchable Robin Hood: Prince of Theives. Did nobody take note that Sir Robin of Loxsley was English?

He became a punch line of has-been stars and bloated Hollywood budgets.

But guess what?
It wasn't always that way for Costner.

There was a time where not only was he NOT a joke, but he was actually kind of awesome.

Lest we forget, baseball fans, that he starred in two of the great baseball movies ever.

He was Crash F---ing Davis!
Bull Durham remains one of the classic sports movies of all time and it aged like a vintage wine. And a huge reason for its success is Costner's funny, pained, macho, sensitive and sexy performance.

You believe he was good enough to make the show and could seduce just about any woman he wanted. You knew that Nuke owes his quick trip to the show to Crash. You believed that Annie would change her whole life for him. And no doubt he was going to be a great manager in Visalia.

And Field of Dreams is a film I do not apologize that I love.
And Costner is a big reason why it works.

He played some real crazy scenes in the film with 100% believability. Hearing the voices, seeing the ghosts of the ballplayers, meeting Burt Lancaster in the Minnesota town... those scenes would have been awful if you didn't have Costner's completely realistic performance.

I remember my dad said after seeing Field of Dreams "If I heard the voice, that's exactly how I'd react."

Beyond the baseball movies, he was great in Silverado and The Untouchables.
Yeah Dances with Wolves didn't age well and his winning the Best Director Oscar over Martin Scorsese in GoodFellas is one of the great headscratchers in Hollywood history. But he was a big enough and loved star to get a film like that off the ground.

I happen to be a fan of JFK as well. Yeah his accent was strange, but who could forget his performance in it? Right down to "Back and to the left... Back and to the left."

And while I was no fan of The Bodyguard as a movie, back then it was believable that he would not only save Whitney Houston, but that she would fall for him as well.

(Believe it or not there was a time when Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston were a pretty hot on screen couple. For my readers under the age of 25, consider your minds blown.)

So there was a reason why Costner got huge budgets and full creative control in those bloated turkeys in the past 15 years.

He was super cool for a while.

Like Costner, Kevin Brown was also once really REALLY good.

Six times Brown was an All Star, starting the 1992 game. Five times he ranked in the top ten in the Cy Young Award vote including being the runner up to John Smoltz in 1996 when he led the league with a 1.89 ERA.

He won another ERA title in 2000. In 1992 he was the first Texas Ranger in 18 years to win 20 games.

His 1996 was noteworthy because if the current trends in Cy Young voting were in vogue that year, Brown would probably have won. (He got 2 first place votes at the time.)

Smoltz had more wins (24 to Brown's 17), more strikeouts (276 to Brown's 159) and (253 2/3 to Brown's 233).

But Brown's ERA was 1.15 lower than Smoltz (1.89 to 2.94.) Brown's ERA+ was a league best 217 to Smoltz's 149. Brown also led the league in WHIP (.944 to Smoltz's 1.001). And Smoltz had the benefit for playing for the 96 win defending World Champions while Brown was on the 80 win third place Florida Marlins.

He was a workhorse, often being among the league leaders in innings pitched and complete games. Twice he had the highest WAR for pitchers.

In 1997 he threw a no hitter against the Giants and then tossed a complete game victory to clinch the pennant for the Marlins. It was Brown on the mound when the Marlins celebrated in Atlanta. The Marlins went on to win the World Series.

Shipped off to San Diego, he won 18 games and helped propel the Padres to the World Series. In the post season he out dueled Randy Johnson in Game 1 of the Division Series. In his two starts in the 4 game victory over the Astros, Brown posted a 0.61 ERA in 14 2/3 innings, striking out 21.

In the NLCS, he out pitched another future Hall of Famer when his 3 hit shutout beat the Braves and Tom Glavine.

In the off season he signed the $100 million contract but actually lived up to it the first few years. He was an 18 game winner and logged 252 innings his first year with the Dodgers. In his second he pitched 230 innings with 5 complete games, winning his second ERA title. He remained healthy for only one season over the remaining five years of the contract including his disappointing year and a half in New York and his implosion late in 2004.

In 2002 he was the highest paid player in baseball and yet threw only 63 2/3 innings all year.

But hey! The Dodgers didn't pick him at random for their $100 million offer!He put together a year that would have won a Cy Young award now. He won 17 or more games four times. He had a pair of ERA titles and a no hitter and some post season glory. In 1998, the Sporting News named him Pitcher of the Year.

That's not an awful resume. And it shouldn't be TOTALLY overshadowed by what happened in the last few years of his deal.

Too bad the great parts of his career happened in relative obscurity in Texas, Florida and San Diego and the disappointments were in Los Angeles and New York.

But Brown is a Kevin worth saluting for the good in his career.
Same with Costner.

Hold Bill Conlin's honors for now

I hate writing about stuff like this. And I am going to tread carefully.
Bill Conlin, the acclaimed sports writer, retired what seemed like seconds before he was accused of sexual abuse of children.

Fun stuff for a blog.

Lots of accusers including his niece have come forward and the whole situation is unraveling.
Conlin deserves his day in court and this hasn't fallen to "Penn State Level." There's no sworn testimony and eye witnesses damning Conlin.

But the Baseball Writers Association of America going out of their way to stand by him as a member in good standing felt a little odd. So did their distinction that his J.G. Taylor Spink Award he won this year, their highest honor, would not be affected by any allegations or decisions.

Am I the only who found it odd?
If they said NOTHING, I'd understand. But to go out of their way to say that the award is only a reflection of his writing and not his character felt odd to me. Many of the same writers who refused to vote for Robbie Alomar for spitting on an umpire despite his decades of apologies and charity work of penance and condemn Pete Rose, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds for off field reasons are giving a "Stand By Your Man" stance for one of their own.

This isn't about proving innocence. This isn't about a court of law. This is about an association that creates their own laws and rules. Rescinding a J. G. Taylor Spink Award isn't taking a man's freedom away.

Saying "We're going to hold off any honors for Mr. Conlin until this situation reaches a conclusion" would not have raised anyone's eyebrows.

Their response raised mine.
I'm not talking about maintaining a mob mentality nor convicting a man before a trial.

But keeping an organization from a potentially embarrassing situation would seem smart to me.

Maybe it is just me.

That's all I've got on this topic.

Have a terrific December 25th

I hope the 25th of December is a terrific day for you, my dear readers.

Whether you are celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ...
Or Osiris, Attis, Mithra and Dionysus or any other God born on December 25th.

If you have a feast for Rickey Henderson on his birthday or just having some kick butt Chinese food and will go see War Horse.

No matter what the reason, have a great December 25th. I'll be writing new posts starting tomorrow.

I'm Sully and I approve this off season for the Red Sox

The Red Sox had post season dreams that fell just short... like Carl Crawford's diving attempt on the last play of the season.

The manager is gone. The closer is gone. The Captain may have played his final game.
A new GM is in charge but undermined by the owners.

It's time to make tons of changes to the Sox, right?

NO!!!!

I have been advocating that the Red Sox take a step back and heaven forbid REBUILD FROM WITHIN.

Let the Angels cough up years and picks for Albert Pujols. And 5 years for C. J. Wilson? Gee whiz I wonder if they will regret that.
Let the Marlins pony up cash for Jose Reyes and a closer like Heath Bell.
Let the Rangers pay Yu Darvish's posting fee.

Jimmy Rollins? He belongs in Philadelphia.
Carlos Beltran? It's amazing that he syncs up his best season in years with a free agency stint. Have fun in St. Louis.

Aramis Ramirez? Mark Buehrle? Grady Sizemore? Jim Thome? Jason Marquis?

Who in that group is a good long term answer for the Red Sox?

And who is left in the free agent market? Prince Fielder? Roy Oswalt? Edwin Jackson?

And forget the trade market.

Yeah the Red Sox could have had Trevor Cahill or Gio Gonzalez.

But Cahill cost Arizona some of their top prospects including Jarrod Parker, their phenom pitcher who made a cameo in the post season.

And Gio Gonzalez cost Washington some of their best young players.

The Red Sox don't need to empty their farm!
They need to try out as many PawSox as they can.
The Red Sox need to fill in holes and they don't need to do it with high priced free agents, blockbuster trades that send the future packing and surrendering draft picks.

The Sox are making smart moves.
Mark Melancon? Not sexy but talented and can help in the pen.
Nick Punto? Won't make many headlines but gives the Sox some infield depth,
Kelly Shoppach? OK, he can't hit. But how can his bat be worse than Varitek's now?

Don't be worried about making noise for December 2011.
Focus on turning the page and seeing what the team needs.
Pile up draft picks and see what gems are hidden in the system.

Let the Marlins, Angels and Nats make the splash now.
I'm thinking about 2013 and beyond.

Keep up the good work of not doing anything big.

It's not going unnoticed by THIS Sox fan.

New Sully Baseball Video - Smile At The Birdy

The Latest Sully Baseball Video is up.
Today I talk about the Orioles first step to returning back to the World Series: The brought back the smiling bird cap.

My faithful readers will recognize that I first addressed this back in 2007 with this blog post.

To watch the other Sully Baseball videos, check out my ShortForm TV channel.

Not sure what the make of the Padres - Reds trade except...

The Padres got the best players named Yasmani, Yonder and Edinson in all of baseball.

Actually I am not sure how Mat Latos will fare in Cincinnati. But his stats dipped last year and no doubt the Padres are banking at the 24 year old Latos's Cy Young contending season in 2010 was a fluke.

And maybe the Padres were thinking that maybe he was a PetCo Park creation.
Either way they get Yonder Alonso who was one of the top prospects in baseball before the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.

They got Yasmani Grandal, a 22 year old excellent hitting catching prospect.

They got Edinson Volquez who was an All Star in 2008 and only 28 and heading into a great pitchers ballpark.

And someone named Brad Boxberger was sent to San Diego.
He's a 24 year old reliever who can strike batters out.
He struck out 93 batters in 62 innings last year. He had 6 2/3 strikeouts for every walk thrown.

I'm telling you. I said it once and I'll say it again.

The Padres have a plan.
I have so much more confidence in the Padres than many other high profile teams.

And you'll hear names like Boxberger and Yonder and Edinson and Yasmani will be in October before a lot of better known names.

New Sully Baseball Video - Raining on Pujols' Parade

The latest Sully Baseball video is live.
In this one, my wife and I went to a little league park in the rain to shoot my thoughts on Albert Pujols' defection to sunny California.

It might be a sad day now... but in 10 years it will be the Angels who regret it.

To see the rest of the Sully Baseball videos, check out the ShortForm TV channel.

Red Sox pitchers who clinched a post season Series: From Dinneen to Papelbon

When doing my salute to Jed Lowrie, I made a note that of the 16 post season series won by the Red Sox, three ended on an offensive walk off play by the Red Sox.

Larry Gardner hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning of Game 8 to end the 1912 World Series.
David Ortiz hit a walk off 2 run homer in the 10th of Game 3 to clinch the 2004 Division Series.
And Jed Lowrie slapped a series ending single in Game 4 of the 2008 Division Series.

But in double checking that fact, I reviewed the end of each series the Sox won and saw the names of each pitcher who threw the last pitch to clinch a post season series for Boston.

Some were names forgotten by all but the most studious baseball historian.
One is one of the biggest names in Red Sox history.

Two of the great clutch relievers in Boston history are on the list.
And two relievers usually associated with blowing games had a moment of glory on the mound.

Those of you who know me know I am mildly obsessed with the pitchers who are on the mound when a series ends.

And in case any other Red Sox fan is out there wondering "Who are all the pitchers to clinch a post season series for my team?" consider your question answered.

Here are the pitchers, the game they pitched, and how was the last out recorded.


BILL DINNEEN
1903 World Series – Game 8
Red Sox 3, Pirates 0

October 13, 1903
At Huntington Avenue Grounds, Boston.

Complete Game 4 hit shutout.
LAST OUT: Strikeout of Honus Wagner.




RUBE FOSTER
1915 World Series - Game 5
Red Sox 5, Phillies 4

October 13, 1915
At Baker Bowl, Philadelphia.

Complete Game victory.
LAST OUT: Pinch hitter Bill Killefer grounds out to shortstop Everett Scott who throws to first baseman Del Gainer for the out.



ERINIE SHORE
1916 World Series - Game 5
Red Sox 4, Robins (Dodgers) 1

October 12, 1916
At Braves Field, Boston.

Complete Game victory with no earned runs.
LAST OUT: Brooklyn third baseman Mike Mowrey popped up to shortstop Everett Scott.



CARL MAYS
1918 World Series - Game 5
Red Sox 2, Cubs 1

September 11, 1918
At Fenway Park, Boston.

Complete Game victory.
LAST OUT: Cubs left fielder Les Mann hit a grounder to second baseman Dave Shean who threw to first baseman Stuffy McInnes for the out.



DICK DRAGO
1975 American League Championship Series - Game 3
Red Sox 5, A's 3

October 7, 1975
At Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

1 2/3 innings to save the game for winner Rick Wise.
LAST OUT: Pinch hitter Jim Holt grounded to second baseman Denny Doyle who threw to first baseman Cecil Cooper for the out.



CALVIN SCHIRALDI
1985 American League Championship Series - Game 7
Red Sox 8, Angels 1

October 15, 1986
At Fenway Park, Boston

2 innings to save the game for winner Roger Clemens.
LAST OUT: Three pitch strike out of pinch hitter Jerry Narron.




PEDRO MARTINEZ
1999 American League Division Series - Game 5
Red Sox 12, Indians 8

October 11, 1999
At Jacobs Field, Cleveland.

Out of the bullpen for 6 no hit innings in relief of starter Bret Saberhagen and reliever Derek Lowe.
LAST OUT: Strikeout of Omar Vizquel.


DEREK LOWE
2003 American League Division Series - Game 5
Red Sox 4, A's 3

October 6, 2003
At Network Associates Coliseum, Oakland.

1 inning of relief to save the game for winner Pedro Martinez.
LAST OUT: Called third strike of pinch hitter Terrence Long.




ALAN EMBREE
2004 American League Championship Series - Game 7
Red Sox 10, Yankees 3

October 20, 2004
At Yankee Stadium, New York.

1/3 of an inning of relief for winner Derek Lowe and relievers Pedro Martinez and Mike Timlin.
LAST OUT: Pinch hitter Ruben Sierra grounded to second baseman Pokey Reese who threw to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz for the out.


KEITH FOULKE
2004 World Series - Game 4.
Red Sox 3, Cardinals 0

October 27, 2004
At Busch Stadium, St. Louis

1 inning of relief to save the game for winner Derek Lowe.
LAST OUT: St. Louis shortstop Edgar Renteria grounded back to Foulke who threw to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz for the out.


ERIC GAGNE
2007 American League Division Series - Game 3
Red Sox 9, Angels 1

October 7, 2007
Angel Stadium, Anaheim

1 inning of relief for winner Curt Schilling
LAST OUT: Pinch hitter Robb Quinlan flies out to right fielder J. D. Drew.


JONATHAN PAPELBON
2007 American League Championship Series - Game 7
Red Sox 11, Indians 2

October 21, 2007
Fenway Park, Boston
2 innings of relief to save the game for starter Daisuke Matsuzaka
LAST OUT: Casey Blake hits a long drive to centerfield where Coco Crisp crashes into the wall for the catch

2007 World Series - Game 4
Red Sox 4, Rockies 3

October 28, 2007
Coors Field, Denver
1 2/3 innings relief to save the game for starter Jon Lester.
LAST OUT: Strikeout of pinch hitter Seth Smith.



So there you have it.
Papelbon is the only one to have done it twice. And I am sure Calvin Schiraldi and Eric Gagne are honored to be on a list with Pedro Martinez.

I love that Pedro relieved Lowe in 1999...
Lowe saved Pedro's clincher in 2003...
And Pedro came out of the bullpen to relieve Lowe in 2004.

There is a nice circle of life there.

And I'm glad to see solid veterans like Dick Drago and Alan Embree here.

All of them deserve Red Sox fan's respect (yes even Calvin and Gagne.)

Hopefully I can add to this list soon.

Until then, enjoy 2007 again.