Sports Q: Which player in history do you wish had spent his prime with the Red Sox?
Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, and email. He’ll pick one each weekday to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation.
Fell down a baseball rabbit hole and saw Rickey Henderson’s Hall of Fame speech the other day. I know he played for the Sox late in his career, but he was one player I always wished was on the Sox during his prime. The speech was kind of a reminder of that. There’s been no one else like him. If you could take any opposing player in history and have him play for the Sox instead, who would it be? – Bill P.
Hmmm, interesting one, Bill. I like it. If by opposing player you mean guys who were on teams other than the Red Sox (but not necessarily opponents, like pre-interleague NL teams), the choice for me would probably be Willie Mays. I still think of him as the most complete all-around player in baseball history. And it would right a Tom Yawkey wrong.
As a kid, my favorite non-Red Sox player was George Brett. He’d be a fine choice, but that also means the great Butch Hobson and Wade Boggs probably wouldn’t be Sox.
There are definitely savvy ways to play this. If you took Mickey Mantle, that would mean the Yankees never had him, an added bonus. If you took Derek Jeter and immediately launched him toward the moon on the spaceship Nomah Is Bettah, you’d never have had to hear Tim McCarver (or Yankees fans, for that matter) exaggerate his feats.
The No. 1 answer here is probably Babe Ruth, for reasons that have been covered a fair amount. But I’m going Mays. Ted Williams in left and Mays in center? That would have worked OK, I think.
But what does everyone else think? Which opposing player in baseball history do you wish had played for the Red Sox at his best? I’ll hear you in the comments.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com